Other names for the famous mountains in Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s scenery is special.

It is the fusion of amazing architectures, great sea view and beautiful hills!

 

The names of the high mountains can show their landscape, local history and people’s creativity.

 

The old local guide books recorded a lot of different other names for the well-known hills in Hong Kong.

Frank the tour guide is going to show readers other names for the famous hills in Hong Kong in this post.

Other names for the well-known hills in Hong Kong
Victoria Peak
Lion Rock
Kowloon Peak
Lantau Peak
Castle Peak
Ma On Shan (Saddle Peak)

It is good to climb Hong Kong’s mountains to see the great view at the hilltop.

 

However, visitors have a lot of things-to-do in Hong Kong and may not have enough time to conquer the hills.

Frank the tour guide is happy to help the visitors.

Frank’s easy Hong Kong private tour service can help clients to use the time efficiently see more and do more.

Clients of course can see Hong Kong’s mountain scenery during Frank’s private car tour.

Victoria Peak

British did change the name of the highest hill on Hong Kong Island as the Victoria Peak.

 

Apart from glorifying the great queen, the function of the name was to prove Hong Kong became the colony of the British Empire.

The imperialistic style name Mount Possession has long been forgotten, the British style name Mount Austin can still been found in the name of a beautiful playground at the Peak today.

 

 

Before the arrival of the British in 1841, Chinese called the hill as the Flag Raising Hill and Peace Hill.

 

The names derived from the stories of a local pirate leader.

People thought the local pirate leader once raised signal flag at the hilltop to order his followers to take action against the trading ships in the harbor.

 

When the pirate leader surrendered and became a general, locals were happy about the peaceful environment.

British also changed the name of an amazing and famous hill in Kowloon.

Lion Rock

British renamed the hill between north Kowloon and Sha Tin in the New Territories as the Lion Rock in about 1900.

 

Apart from describing the shape of the hilltop vividly, the name showed British did admire the lion.

Lion dance is the intangible cultural heritage in China, but Chinese did not see real lion very often.

 

Actually China only got the lions when other nations gave the beast to Chinese emperors as the tribute.

Local Chinese did call the hill as Tiger Head Hill.

 

In the past, tigers sometimes disturbed, hurt and even killed people in Hong Kong.

 

Today’s Lok Fu Area under the Lion Rock was actually called Lo Fu Ngam (Lo Fu: Tiger, Ngam: Rock).

 

Locals Chinese also called the hill as Camel Hill and Hawk Beak Hill.

Due to erosion and weathering, it is not easy to find the big hump of camel and the sharp beak of hawk at the hilltop now.

Although Lion Rock is as famous as the Victoria Peak, it is not the highest hill in Kowloon.

Kowloon Peak

The highest hill in Kowloon is Kowloon Peak.

 

This should be another British influence on the mountain names in the colony.

 

Chinese names for this steep high hill were quite creative.

 

Chinese named this hill after a bird and an insect, goose and moth.

 

The hilltop really looks like the head of the two animals.

The shape of the hill also resembles the spreading wings.

 

Local Chinese also used the name of an imaginary animal to name the highest mountain on Lantau Island.

Lantau Peak

Lantau Peak is the second highest hill in the whole Hong Kong and the highest hill on the Lantau Island.

 

Actually “Lan” means “broken” and “Tau” means “head”.

Locals wanted to describe the badlands on the hilltop, which was similar to a broken and bleeding head.

Creative locals also named the hill after the imaginary bird, phoenix, which is called Fung Wong in Cantonese.

When you see the Fung Wong (phoenix) Hill from the Ngong Ping Big Buddha or in the Ngong Ping Cable Car cabin, the hill really looks like a heaven-kissing soaring phoenix!

 

In the Ngong Ping Cable Car cabin, passengers can also see a big mountain in the New Territories opposite to the Lantau Island.

Castle Peak

On the day with good weather, people can see the Castle Peak in Tuen Mun in the New Territories from the Ngong Ping Cable Car cabin and Hong Kong Airport.

 

British thought that the hill looked like the big and tall defense facility in Scotland.

 

Locals first called the hill as Pui To Hill.

Locals believed that one Buddhist monk Pui To used a big wooden bucket (Pui) to cross (To) the sea.

He used the hill as his hermitage, i.e. today’s Ching Shan Monastery.

 

Locals just name the hill after the monk.

Later as the sea in front of the hill became the main sea route for foreign trade, Chinese emperors did set up the Tuen Mun Military Town to protect the merchant fleets.

So locals called the hill near the barracks as Tuen Mun Hill.

 

Castle Peak or Tuen Mun Hill is in the Western part of the New Territories.

Its counterpart in the Eastern part of the New Territories is also great.

Ma On Shan (Saddle Peak)

Ma On Shan (Saddle Peak) is in the Sha Tin District in the Eastern part of the New Territories.

It is not related to the Sha Tin Race Course, which was only built in 1978, on its opposite side.

 

 

Locals named this hill with a saddle-like curved hilltop as Ma On Shan (Ma On: saddle, Shan: hill) long before the construction of the race track.

 

The name Ma On Shan first appeared in a local guide book or gazetteer in the 17th century.

 

Later locals named it as the Hunchback Hill.

 

This name shows the hill’s landscape vividly.

 

It is not related to Ma On Shan iron mine’s old workers.

Some old miners are still living in the village near the deserted mine today.

See nice mountain scenery in Frank’s easy Hong Kong private tour

As the small Hong Kong has a lot of beautiful mountains, hiking is always popular.

Even under the Covid-19 pandemic, the hiking trails are still busier than the main roads in the city center on the holidays.

As foreign visitors already have a lot of things to do, they may not have time to go hiking to enjoy the nice natural landscape.

Frank the tour guide’s easy Hong Kong private tour programmes cover different parts of Hong Kong.

Clients can see the mountain scenery easily during Frank’s private car tour service.

Frank hopes he show you his hometown in his tour soon.

For further questions, please contact Frank