Rock climbing & adventure sports

Beyond hiking and cycling, Hong Kong has a smaller but genuine adventure sports scene, taking advantage of its combination of sea cliffs, granite hills and country parks within easy reach of the city.

Rock climbing

Tung Lung Chau, an island off the south-east of Hong Kong Island, is the best-known destination for sea-cliff climbing, with routes across a range of difficulty levels; several indoor climbing gyms around the city also offer bouldering and top-rope climbing for those without their own gear or a climbing partner.

Canyoning

A smaller, guided-tour-based activity that's grown in popularity, descending waterfalls and river gorges in the New Territories — generally requires booking through a specialist operator rather than being something to attempt independently.

Abseiling and via ferrata

A limited number of operators run guided abseiling and via ferrata-style routes on some of the territory's sea cliffs and hillsides, aimed at beginners wanting a supervised adrenaline activity rather than experienced climbers.

Getting started

For anything beyond hiking and casual cycling, going through an established local operator is strongly recommended — terrain, tides and weather (particularly typhoon-season conditions, see our typhoon signals guide) can change conditions quickly.