Stone cabins 100 years old on a Hong Kong mountain offer a tranquil escape and amazing views
- The 20 rough-hewn single-storey stone cabins of Lantau Mountain Camp were built in the 1920s for missionaries who loved the remoteness of its location
- They can best be described as basic, but their owners don’t mind going without luxuries when, as one says, they have a ‘feeling of complete and utter freedom’
Hong Kong’s most exclusive accommodation has no stars, bars or spas, and nothing at all in the way of valet parking. But for splendid isolation, natural beauty and monarch-of-all-I-survey panoramas, Lantau Mountain Camp has yet to find an equal.
Set a short way to the east of 869-metre Sunset Peak (Tai Tung Shan), and strung out either side of the Lantau Trail, the “camp” is made up of 20 rough-hewn, single-storey stone cabins that are unlikely to grace the pages of Architectural Digest but are imbued with peace and quiet.
Built almost a century ago, most of the cabins are in private hands and serve as high-altitude homes-away-from-home, although some belong to religious organisations or schools that use them as a base for training and for getaways.
Few of the cabins – which sell for around HK$100,000 (US$13,000), depending on location and condition – rise very much above the status of bed and roof. One or two are solar powered, but there is no mains electricity so most rely on LED lamps or something similar.
Many owners simply fall in with the rhythm of nature, sitting out under the stars or going to bed once night falls. Rooftop tanks collect rainwater and the only way to bring up food, alcohol and life’s other essentials is by carrying them. Septic tanks deal with the associated end products.
