Day hike: Wan Chai to Aberdeen

I’ve done this hike a few times at night, but never in daytime… so after walking along Bowen Road, we decided to continue uphill to Wan Chai Gap road and from there go down the Aberdeen Nature Trail to Aberdeen.

It’s a fairly short hike, around 6km, but a very scenic one. Here’s a short map, just note that this is from my night hike version and starts at Hopewell Centre, which means you have to climb a steep slope uphill!

We walked across to the outdoor playground/picnic area and the police museum (keep this on your right hand side) and then downhill, along the Hong Kong Trail Section 3. This is a paved road, that goes to the Aberdeen Reservoirs.

The Aberdeen Reservoirs were built in 1931 to augment Pok Fu Lam Reservoir in providing water supply to the west of Hong Kong Island. We reached the Upper Reservoir first, which has a capacity of 800,000 m3 litres of water but as you can see, there was not much water left in early January – it has been quiet dry the last few months, so the reservoirs have been drained!

After we crossed the bridge over the dam of the Upper Reservoir, we reached a barbecue area that was very popular – there was no free pit, and the smell of grilled meat lingered in the air! Hungrily we passed this area, and then turned right, following the signs to the Lower Aberdeen Reservoir.

The Lower Aberdeen Reservoir, with a capacity of 201,000 m3 litres of water, was originally a private reservoir owned by Tai Shing Paper Factory, built in 1890, which also provided water to nearby residents. Today it was very dry – the water levels were 10m below the highest mark – but there were still hobby fishermen (and women) spending a sunny afternoon trying to catch a fish!

The Government bought the reservoir and expanded it, turning it into the fourth and last reservoir group ever built on Hong Kong Island, after Pok Fu Lam, Tai Tam and Wong Nai Chung.

From the Aberdeen Lower Reservoir it is just a short walk downhill on Aberdeen Reservoir Road until we were back in the hustle and bustle of the city, and of course, lots of transport options at our footsteps. We took an Express Bus back to Wan Chai, so within 15 mins we were back at home – a great day out on a sunny and warm January day!