Off the Beaten Path in Hong Kong: 10 Places Most First-Timers Miss

Most lists of places off the beaten path in Hong Kong still send you to the Big Buddha, Man Mo Temple and Temple Street. Those are great. They are also on every first-timer's itinerary, which is the opposite of off the beaten path. This list is the other kind: ten places that most visitors never hear about, nearly all of them free, and all of them reachable on public transport if you plan around a few timetables.

I have grouped them by area so you can fold one or two into a day you were already planning, rather than crossing the city for each.

Hong Kong Island

1. The Noonday Gun, Causeway Bay. Every day at 12:00, a uniformed Jardines guard rings a bell and fires a small cannon over the typhoon shelter, a ritual that dates back to the 1860s. It is free, it takes five minutes, and most people walk straight past the entrance, which is a tunnel near the World Trade Centre car park. Leave Causeway Bay MTR by Exit D1 and arrive a few minutes early. Outside the noon window the platform is chained off. Our Noonday Gun guide has the full walking route and the strange story of why a trading house fires a gun at lunchtime.

2. Sai Wan Swimming Shed, Kennedy Town. The last working swimming shed in the city: a plank pier on stilts below Victoria Road, with a ladder into the sea. From Kennedy Town Exit A it is about 15 minutes on foot, or take bus 1, 43M or 971 to the Caritas Jockey Club Hostel stop. The staircase down is just before that stop and has no sign. Go at sunset on a weekday. Weekends bring a queue of photographers, and mornings belong to the club's swimmers. There are no lifeguards, so do not swim.

3. Cape D'Aguilar, past Shek O. The southeastern tip of the island, with Hong Kong's oldest surviving lighthouse (first lit in 1875), its only marine reserve, a booming sea cave called Thunder Cave and a replica whale skeleton. Take bus 9 from Shau Kei Wan Exit A3, but check the board first because not every bus 9 continues to Cape D'Aguilar Road. From the stop it is about 7.1km there and back on a paved road with very little climbing, so trainers are fine.

Kowloon

4. Kowloon Walled City Park. Almost nothing of the famous slum survives. What you get is a free Chinese garden on the same six acres, the original Qing-era Yamen building, a bronze model of the old city and the excavated remains of its South Gate. It is a few minutes' walk from Sung Wong Toi Exit B3. The park opens 6:30am to 11pm, but the exhibition inside the Yamen runs 10am to 6pm and closes on Wednesdays, so skip Wednesdays if you want the model. Read whether Kowloon Walled City Park is worth visiting before you go so you know what is and is not left.

5. The Bird Garden, Flower Market and Goldfish Market walk, Prince Edward. Three old Mong Kok streets, one MTR station, about an hour, no cost. Order matters because they wake up at different times. Start at the Yuen Po Street Bird Garden (opens 7am, best early when regulars hang their songbird cages in the trees), walk back down Flower Market Road as the shops open around 9:30am, then finish on Tung Choi Street once the goldfish shops open around 10:30am. Use Prince Edward Exit B1 to start.

The New Territories

6. Lam Tsuen Wishing Trees, Tai Po. Write a wish on joss paper, tie it to a plastic orange and throw it into the branches. If it catches, the wish comes true. The tree you throw at is artificial, installed in 2009 after a branch of the real banyan broke under the weight of offerings in 2005. Take the East Rail Line to Tai Po Market Exit A1, then KMB 64K or green minibus 25K to Fong Ma Po. Weekday mornings are near empty. The first days of Lunar New Year are packed, which is the point.

7. High Island Reservoir East Dam, Sai Kung. Cliffs made of hexagonal rock columns, a walk of about 2km there and back. The catch is access: green minibus 9A, the last leg from Pak Tam Chung, runs on weekends and public holidays only, so on a weekday a taxi from Sai Kung or Pak Tam Chung is the only way in. There is almost no shade. Our East Dam hike guide lists every route in, including the weekend kaito.

8. Nam Sang Wai, Yuen Long. Reed beds and old fish ponds just north of Yuen Long, reached on the city's last hand-paddled river ferry, which costs a few dollars in cash. From Yuen Long Exit G1 it is about 40 minutes on foot to the Shan Pui Village ferry point, or around 20 minutes by rented bike. Come for the late afternoon and stay for sunset. It is free, flat and almost tourist-free.

The quiet islands

9. Tap Mun (Grass Island). The hardest of Hong Kong's islands to reach, and the emptiest: a grassy plateau, feral cattle and a fishing village of around 100 people. The easier kaito leaves from Wong Shek Pier (bus 94 from Sai Kung), and both kaito routes take Octopus. The Ma Liu Shui route near University station has only two sailings a day, so build the day around the timetable, not the other way round.

10. Peng Chau. The smallest of the four main outlying islands, under a square kilometre, with no cars at all. The ordinary ferry from Central Pier 6 takes 35 to 40 minutes. Climb the roughly 355 steps up Finger Hill for a view back to Lantau, then walk the village lanes. It stays quiet on a Sunday when Cheung Chau does not.

What I left off, and why

Choi Hung Estate and the Monster Building are both worth seeing, but they are now firmly on the photo circuit, so they live in our most Instagrammable spots in Hong Kong list instead. The same goes for the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery and Nan Lian Garden: free and excellent, just not unknown. If you want empty sand rather than empty streets, the coves and long beaches are a list of their own.

How to string them together

You do not need a car for any of this, but you do need to respect a few timetables.

• A western Island afternoon: the Noonday Gun at 12:00, then the tram or MTR west to Kennedy Town for sunset at Sai Wan.
• A Kowloon morning: the Bird Garden walk from 9am, then a short ride to Kowloon Walled City Park (not on a Wednesday if you want the Yamen exhibition).
• A weekend in Sai Kung: the East Dam one day, Tap Mun via Wong Shek another. Both lean on weekend-only transport.
• A New Territories day: Lam Tsuen in the morning, then Nam Sang Wai for the late afternoon and sunset.

Carry an Octopus card and some coins. The kaitos and the Nam Sang Wai ferry are where cash or Octopus matters most.

Quick answers

What is the dark history of Kowloon Walled City? It began as a small Chinese fort that was left out of British control, and that gap turned it into a dense, largely ungoverned enclave of unlicensed towers. Around 30,000 residents were relocated in 1993, the buildings were demolished by 1994, and the park opened on the site in 1995.

Where do locals go that tourists don't? Places like the Sai Wan Swimming Shed at dawn, the Bird Garden in the early morning, and the Nam Sang Wai embankments. They are part of daily routines, so go quietly and do not photograph people swimming or buying.

Can I see these places without a car or a tour? Yes. Every place on this list is reachable by MTR, bus, minibus or ferry. The only real restriction is the High Island East Dam, where public transport runs on weekends and public holidays only.

Are these places free? Nearly all of them. The Noonday Gun, Sai Wan, Cape D'Aguilar, Kowloon Walled City Park, the Mong Kok walk, Lam Tsuen and Nam Sang Wai cost nothing to enter. You pay only for transport, plus a small cash fare for the Nam Sang Wai ferry.

What is the best off the beaten path day trip from Hong Kong? Tap Mun if you can plan around the ferries, Peng Chau if you want something easier. Both are islands where you can walk for an hour without meeting a tour group.