Lantau Island is the largest island off of Hong Kong. It’s lush, green, laid back, and has a totally different feel to it then the city. When Trevor and I first started looking for places to live in Hong Kong, Lantau was on the list. We loved it’s quiet, peaceful vibe, the beaches, and the fact that Rhino would be able to roam free. The long commute to work made us reconsider living on Lantau, but we made sure to live close enough to the ferry pier, providing us easy access to it’s hiking and beaches on the weekend.

The small towns (villages?) of Lantau are a mix of old temples, local housing, new (expat style) condos, farms, trails, and beaches. The communities are friendly, most knowing each other, and there is always some sort of an event going on – from a trail run, to hiking groups, to bbqs on the beach.

Lantau also is home to a fairly large population of water buffalo, that roam freely throughout the town, on the trails and beaches.

They seem peaceful, and pretty comfortable around people, but their size still makes them a bit intimidating. The water buffalo really seem to enjoy Rhino, as they like to follow him (and he them) as we hike, and we sometimes end up with a small pack of the water buffalo following us on hikes.

Lantau is also home to almost a hundred kilometers of hiking trails. The trails almost all have some hand carved stone steps to help guide you on their steepest parts, and offer amazing views at the top of each climb no matter what the weather.

We try to get over to Lantau as much as we can for small adventures between our international trips, and to enjoy the open space and green that we miss from living in Portland.