For as city as highly urbanised and densely packed as Hong Kong, there can be a surprising amount of wildlife around in the city. Just last week a wild boar appeared on the streets of North Point, one of the world’s most bustling residential districts. The boar caused chaos and was pursued unsuccessfully by police before disappearing back up the hillside into the thickly forested slopes. Presumably it is still there, living in the mountains that form the spine of Hong Kong island.
Another surprising wildlife attraction is the “monkey hill” at Tsuen Wan, a New Territories outer suburb at the end of the subway line (albeit one with 80 storey buildings).
On a hill by a reservoir a family of thirty to forty macaque monkeys live in the Kam Shan Country Park. Hikers are virtually guaranteed to see them.
I was disappointed though to find the walk so…urban. With a housing estate on one side and taxis streaming past on a nearby road the “wildlife” is certainly convenient to visit, if not very…wild.
The hill to the monkeys was lined with surprisingly slummy-looking shacks – squatter villages – and signs warning of their vulnerability in mudslides and rainstorms, as well as little clusters of religious statues.
