Today was a beautiful spring day, 20 degrees, cloud cover, light breeze — a perfect day for hiking. We went to try out a new trail that I read about online, the Wong Nai Chung Gap Trail, which I have aptly nicknamed, much to my significant other’s chagrin, the ‘Evil Japanese Invade Hong Kong Trail’.

This trail had 10 stations with signs that explain the taking of Hong Kong during WWII. The walk takes you through the forest to see where the troops prepared for the invasion of the Japanese military, with anti-aircraft gun platforms (no guns, though), pillboxes, ammo magazines, and lookout points.

All in all, it was kind of a wimpy walk, and the website was a bit misleading — it said it would take two to three hours to complete, but we walked through it in an hour and a half without breaking a sweat. It was, however, nice exercise, and showed us some completely new views of Hong Kong from another angle.

Spy vs. Spy — Seiji follows in his forefather’s footsteps. (Actually, in reality, the binoculars are for very peaceful falcon watching!)

View of Central in the distance. And on the left is a very typical Hong Kong higrise — straight up and skinny.

I’ve come to entertain the troops!

The pillbox at Station 5

Showing off his prowess to impress the chicks.

After the walk we celebrated our victorious conquering of such a mighty and life-threatening trail by drinking an ice-cold San Miguel at the nearby Tai Tam Reservoir.

Feeding the hungry coy.

I’m trying to do a walk every weekend because in May some friends and I are planning to do a mega weekend hike up this mystic mountain in Sichuan province, and I’ve read it’s wonderful but you need to be pretty fit to handle it. Today’s walk may have been a bit wimpy, but you know the Chinese saying, The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.