Night Hike at Nanshan

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Another day, another hike. I have to get them in before the weather gets too hot and humid and I retreat to curl up under my air con for the summer. Since it was a holiday, I thought the trails might be busy. I headed from the subway up to the park entrance. I was surprised that there wasn't too many people around. The guard actually checked to see that my health code was green, which I'd never had done there before. They must be being stricter because it is a holiday. The walk up the road to the start of the trails was quite busy, but not too bad. Just before reaching the trails, I popped into my favourite public toilets in the whole of China, still spotless. I wish everywhere was like this.

There are a few different trails on the mountain and I had decided to hike the one that I do most frequently, as it was give me plenty of different night views of the city. While there were few people going up, there were a lot of people going down. It was okay though as the path wasn't clogged. It was still pretty light though, I am not good at timing it right for the sunset. The steps were a bit of a killer as I hadn't been on a hike in a while, but I made it to the first two viewpoints fairly quickly and without too many stops on the way. The sky was pretty clear so I got some lovely views down to Shenzhen Bay and Hong Kong in the distance. There were also quite a few planes coming in to land at Shenzhen airport. During day hikes, I have seen a few planes, but it seems like early evening is peak time for flights landing. As I continued on, the sun was starting to set. It was on the other side of the mountain, which I hadn't realised. For some reason, I thought it would have set over the bay. It was nice to see the sun setting behind the trees. It made for some nice pictures.

When I arrived at the main pavilion at the top of the first hill, I was surprised that there were so many people there, since I'd seen so many people on their way down the mountain. The top floor of the pavilion was packed, so I just took a few photos and then left. It would be a nice place to see the sunset, but was too busy for me. I continued along the trail, to the next main viewpoint, next to the weather station (at least I think it's a weather station). It was funny as I made my way around as the sky had been dark and a nice reddy orange for the sunset, but as the trail curved, the top of the sky lightened up again. The view on the side leading to Hong Kong and the port there wasn't that great as it was just a bit dark and some of the lights were starting to come on, but not a lot. The steeps step to the top of the second peak weren't too bad this time, sometimes they feel never ending. It was nice to get to the top to take in the views. There were quite a few people at the top, milling around, but since there is a lot more space everyone was spread out. Lots of people were photographing the planes descending into the airport. The sky was pretty light over here with a bit of a purple pink hue to it. I like looking at the small islands that are scattered about. I wonder if they are natural or made with reclaimed land for businesses to operate on.

As I continued on, the sun had disappeared from the sky and it was dark now. This gave me some great views as the city was all lit up. I love looking at the bridge all lit up. I really need to look up where it leads to. I think it might be the Guangshen Expressway that links Shenzhen to other cities in Guangdong, but I could be off geographically and it could be another bridge in Shenzhen. On my way down the mountain, I stopped at a few of the other viewpoints that give me great views of the city. The further I descended the mountain the darker it got and the less lighting there was. At the peaks and near them, there had been street lights, but that just kind of stopped and I had to use my phone's torch to make sure I didn't fall down the stairs and injure myself. I was a bit surprised that there wasn't more lighting from a safety point of view, but then there weren't that many people so it probably is a bit of a waste of money. It did make the hike a little spooky and scary, as I could hear the odd rustling in the bushes and also people would just appear. However, this wouldn't stop me from doing the hike again at night. Although it might be better to take the road path down as I think that may be well lit.

At the bottom, I made my way through the small park that is between the mountain park and the subway station. I was trying to do this from memory, but in the dark it looked a bit different. Anyway, I found the exit that I normally use and was a bit annoyed to find out that it had been boarded up. It was probably a Covid measure to limit the entrances to the park. I stood there for a minute or two trying to figure out what I should do, when I heard some rustling in the bushes, next to the boarded up entrance, and a bloke pops out. Seems like you could still access this entrance/exit so I headed through the bush and was on the other side in no time. I'm glad I didn't have to go back into the park and find another exit as this one is right next to the subway station. All in all, it was a good hike which I would like to do again although more lighting would be nice.

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Comments

[RENanDREW]

Adventures while it's still cool...
What a beautiful sounding hike. I have done the HK-Shenzen trip a few times in the past; but I never realised you could see HK from Shenzen!

[Zephyr]

My Favourite
It's so close but because of the then border closure feels so far. There are a few different routes and it's not too difficult.