Victoria Peak, imposingly towering in the west of Hong Kong Island, is the highest peak in this island and the most enduring tourist attraction in Hong Kong, featuring the city's oldest mode of transport, the 112-year old Peak Tram and Hong Kong's most unusual building and icon, Peak Tower.
The top of the peak is 1,805 feet above sea level. In the early period of colonial rule, Victoria Peak was open to the people of upper strata of society only and normal people were forbidden to visit the peak unless getting a special permission from the governor of Hong Kong. Today, Victoria Peak has already become a scenic spot noted all over the world. Ascending the peak enables you to experience the dazzling panorama of Hong Kong Island, the harbor, Kowloon and the hills beyond.
What's more, the peak offers visitors a multitude of fantastic entertainment, dining and shopping options. The Peak Galleria shopping mall and the Peak Tower have a wide selection of restaurants and boutiques selling souvenirs, clothes, and gifts.
Peak Tram
The best way to get to the top is via the Peak Tram, a funicular railway that carves a steep 373-metre (about 1224 feet) swathe up the lush mountainside. It carried its first passengers in 1888 and has, over the last century, served as one of the city's most vital transport links. The track itself is 1400 meters (4592 feet) long and is the shortest yet most scenic route to the Peak taking approximately 7 minutes. The steepest gradient of the tram track, which is at May Road, is 27 degrees to the horizon. The Peak Tram is quick and safe, it is environmentally friendly due to its microprocessor-controlled electric drive system. The tram is computer-controlled with an automatic system check on all safety devices before its journey begins.
The Peak Tram runs every day, including Sundays and public holidays, between 7:00am and midnight. The tram departs every 15 minutes.
Peak Tower
As the Peak Tram pulls up into its final destination one could enter directly into the Peak Tower. Regarded as the icon of Hong Kong, the striking and unusual Peak Tower sits at an elevation of over 396 meters (about 1299 feet) overlooking the spectacular Victoria Harbor, Kowloon and the New Territories. Commissioned in 1993 and completed in May of 1997, the tower serves as a center of combining catering and recreation, which contains dining hall, wonder hall and some of the best entertainment attractions in Hong Kong. Among them, the most special is the wonder hall which is called "Believe it or not". It is the chain museum unique in the world, which was constructed by Robert L. Ripley in 1930. Inside the hall there exhibited the adventurous events experienced by Ripley, primitive forest, beauty taking sun bath, frenzied car, turning tunnel, shark aquarium, ultimate cruel torture, marvelous spectacles of human race and animals, complete works of tongue twister and mass media fun station etc.
If you have enough time, you may go around the Harlech Road and the Lugard Road on both sides of the peak, which is the best spot to look down at both shores of Victoria Harbor, Kowloon Peninsula and even the Pok Fu Lam Reservoir and Island district on the southern part of Hong Kong. |
Asia Travel 
Articles: (
Newest publication