Seeking Devil’s Claw along Chung Hom Kok

Chung Hom Kok is the little headland on the west of Stanley Peninsula. But the mountain itself isn’t the highlight for most who come trekking. Now I’ve talked about Devil’s Fist, and also Devil’s Peak, but did you know that there’s also Devil’s Claw? Located on the hill that goes up to Chung Hom Kok, the Devil’s Claw doesn’t look like a ‘claw’ to me, but rather two triangular rocks that are bigger than expected. If you want an easy hike with good views and cool rocks, this is the one!

Devil’s Claw Chung Hom Kok hike summary

Time taken: 1-2 hours, depending on your hiking speed

Difficulty: 2/5 if you skip Devil’s Claw, 3/5 if you do go down/go up from there

Pro: a short hike with unique rock formation and relatively short and sea view

Con: a long bus ride over and some dodgy stairs, and only a handful of buses go in

Getting to Chung Hom Kok trail start

Chung Hom Kok is quite remote, so there’s only a few buses you can take. The safest one to take is 6X, which goes to Chung Hom Kok Beach that’s nearest to the trail start. Certain runs of number 6 also go to Chung Hom Kok, but it’s easier to stick to 6X. The bus stop is at the end closer to Central.

Make sure to watch out for the stop because it’s not a popular area, and the bus tends to skip stations. But it is at a small roundabout with no sea view in sight.

Chung Hom Kok trail start

The trail start for Chung Hom Kok is just a little down the road from the roundabout, across another and opposite a rubbish collection site, under a tree.

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The hike is not very steep, but it is quite narrow and in between vegetation. It then goes up on concrete stairs that is a bit loose, so watch your footings.

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You can see the surrounding houses and flats, and then across to Stanley as well.

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At the end of the stairs is a small peak where you can see Stanley and also to the western side of south Hong Kong Island as well, to Ocean Park.

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From there, it’s a little interesting with the trail going under a fence so you have to crawl through.

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It’s due to a fallen concrete post, as we loop back to the main trail quickly.

It then emerges to a small valley with the rest of Chung Hom Kok’s mountain range extending in front of us.

There is a big rock cluster on the top and an even better panorama.

If you want to go to Devil’s Claw, you need to pop down here, or take another trail up (more below)

Devil’s Claw

The trail start for Chong Hom Kok is actually not the same as the trail start you need to take to go directly to Devil’s Claw, which was an unexpected surprise for us.

The geolocation on google map is not correct, just so you know. We did the hike down then back up as an extension, but that part is a lot more slippery.

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This is what we did because we didn’t realise Devil’s Claw is so much further down on the side of the hill. It’s not a very long detour but certainly is slippery.

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You can see the two distinct triangular rocks with honeycomb weathering, backed by the pristine Chung Hom Kok Beach.

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The Devil’s Claw is much bigger than I expected. You can’t actually get close to them, but you can go right from the trail and look back towards them.

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Note: if you want to hike up directly to Devil’s Claw, carry on along the Chung Hom Kok Road until you see this beautiful tree with sprawling roots, and the trail up is in the pass by space in front.

Fun fact: we walked around for quite a while trying to find the Devil’s Claw

Back to Chung Hom Kok

We went all the way back up and carried on the trail between two big rocks. It’s a little easy to get lost here but the main trail continues more in the middle.

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It then go towards a big rock in the distance that has the same weathering as the Devil’s Claw, then it starts to go towards the Chung Hom Kok Peak. 

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While we can see the black and white pillar from afar, the trail dips to the left and goes up and down before plunging between vegetation.

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If you are a tall person, you might have to bend down a bit.

There isn’t much of a view at the peak, and once there, you are minutes from the end of the trail.

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We got a few photos before looping back to the main road and started going down. There’s a lone circular concrete structure that was likely for snipers in WWII.

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After that, it’s a daily straight forward descent that first went through the forest, then on concrete and metal stairs that lead down to the Cheshire Home. 

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Note: the Chung Hom Kok Battery is to the left but we didn’t realised it and left.

Getting out of Chung Hom Kok

Just go right facing the Cheshire home along the road and it’s a short walk to the bus stop. The one across the road from the stop we got off have buses to take us out of central.