Hong Kong Island Peak Travel Video Guide

Hong Kong Island Peak Travel Itinerary

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The uppermost levels of the 550-metre hill that towers over Central and Victoria harbour have always been known as the Peak and, in former colonial days, the area was populated by upper-class expats, mostly living in expensive houses paid for by their employers or (in the case of civil servants) the government. Meanwhile, the vast mass of the population lived down below, where the climate was hotter, more humid and less healthy. The story of the colonization of what was originally a barren, treeless rock is an extraordinary one. Before 1859, when the first path up to the Peak was carved out, it was barely possible to get up here at all, let alone put houses on it. And yet within twenty years, a number of summer homes had been built for a wealthy minority of British merchants, who sought out the higher levels as a way of escaping the heat and malaria of the seafront in summer. Incredible though it is to imagine now, everything - from human beings to building materials - was carried laboriously up the hill by coolies.

The idea of building a rail link to the top of the Peak was originally scoffed at when first proposed, because the gradients were considered impossibly steep. In 1888, however, this all changed with the successful opening of a funicular railway known as the Peak Tram, which allowed speedy and regular connections to the harbour. What had been a barren rock began to be transformed with the planting of trees as well as the construction of a

regular summer village. By 1924, when the first road to the Peak was built, permanent homes had begun to appear, though Chinese were not allowed to set up home on the hill until much later. Now, anyone can live here who can afford it - and these days that usually means Chinese tycoons. Aside from its exclusive residential area, the Peak is still a cool, peaceful retreat from the rigours of downtown and a vantage point offering some extraordinary panoramic views over the city and harbour below.

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