Cheung Yeung Monkey Business

Cheung Yeung or Double Ninth Festival is a public holiday in Hong Kong. This year it fell on a Wednesday and delighted everyone with a mid-week break. Apparently, it's tradition to climb a mountain or go hiking, as well as drink chrysanthemum tea. Always ready to try out new traditions we happily accepted an invitation to go hiking with Swallow and John, and their band of merry hikers.

Here we all are:

One of my favorite things about hiking in Hong Kong is the wonderment that comes with what contrast we live in. Walking through forest and not seeing a building, but being able to hear the hubbub of traffic. Bumping into wildlife and feeling like you're in the middle of nowhere and then crossing a hill to see high-rises, home to millions of people. Incredible. 

 Our Wednesday hike was up to Lion Rock (can you see how it got it's name?). It started in the city, Wong Tai Sin (right out of the MTR) and we had the perfect day for it. Overcast. Thankfully, temperatures are cooling in HK right now, although we were still sweating buckets and I still get requests for the "sweat cloth". Yuck.

This is exactly what I'm talking about when I am referring to contrasts. 

Closing in on our target. 495 meters.

The next two photos were taken by another one of the hikers, Rencheng. Beautiful.

 

Atop those rocks is where we ate our lunch...and also where we ran into some monkey business... well, it ran into us. Monkey King. Snatched that packet of bread right out of one of the hikers hands. Greedy monkey.

This was not the first or the last time we would be dealing with the apes.

 Another one of Rencheng's beautiful pictures. The fallen blossoms.