Hong Kong's rough on mountain biking
Hong Kong is a small territory, with a population of around 7 million it is one of the most densely populated city in the world. But the urban sprawl only covers about 30% of the territory's surface. Most of the land is mountainous and undeveloped, exactly what we need to ride mountain bikes.
The proximity of city, with its economic dynamism, and a dramatic mountainous landscape makes it - potentially - one of the best place to live, work and ride in the world.
Most of the undeveloped lands are protected and regulated by the AFCD . They are government founded and have for mission to protect Hong Kong natural assets and improve visitor accessability to the outdoors.Unfortunately mountain biking was banned from the trails almost as soon as it appeared in the 1990's, but a long struggle fought by the HKMBA has today made mountain biking legal on certain "OPEN" trails.
{mosmap kml='http://hkmba.org/google_maps/hk-trail-overview.kml'|lightbox='1'}
The network
The OPEN trail network is small, only 50 k's of single track at the most. This Network as described by the Country Parks also includes park paved roads and paths which total length is approximatively 80 kms. The trails are scattered all across the territory. Only 2 trails are loops that you can ridden in both directions: Chi Ma Wan Penninsula (Lantau Island) and Wan Tsai Island (Sai Kung East).
The most popular trails are in Tai Lam Counrty park and the Chi Ma Wan Peninsula. Tai Lam is renowned for its easy accessibility, killer downhills and labyrinth of networking trails while Chi Ma Wan, not as accessible, offers a true cross country experience
There are however many other trails in the Country Parks which are NOT OPEN yet, but are suitable for riding. We estimate that 150km of single track could be opened within the Country Parks making Hong Kong a leading mountain bike destination in the region. Getting the Country Parks to open these potential trails is HKMBA's main objective.
The Country Park trails
Many of the trails within the country parks are quite technical, they demand a lot from the rider due to their ruggedness, a lack of maintenance work and more so, a lack of knowledge on how to deal with yearly monsoon erosion means that these trails are not always biker friendly and certainly not for the beginner or to ride with the family, even the paved trails are very hilly and require a fair amount of strength and stamina.
Outside of the Counrty Parks
There is a few locations situated outside of the Country Parks boundaries where riders have designed there own trails. Lamma Island and Sheng Shui's Ting Ping Shan are both offering loops and DH tracks.