EL’s Production Manager Judit took these photos on Sunset Peak, Lantau, recently and we were intrigued. Here’s what we discovered about the stone huts that are dotted around the hill.
Sunset Peak on Lantau is Hong Kong’s third-highest mountain (869m). People enjoy the area for its gorgeous views (yes, including at sunset!) and its fields of Chinese silvergrass, which grows up to two metres high. Hikers doing the Lantau Trail pass by here on Section 2 of the walk, from Nam Shan to Pak Kung Au.
As for the 19 or 20 small stone huts or chalets found on the Peak, they’re known collectively as Lantau Mountain Camp. Local stone cutters constructed them around 100 years ago. Ranging in size from 200 to 400 square feet, with two or three rooms and a bathroom, they were designed as summer retreats for missionaries’ families to escape the HK heat.
Memories of the Lantau stone huts
One person who stayed in them as a child was British colonial civil servant Denis Bray, the former Secretary for Home Affairs. In a lecture to the Royal Asiatic Society in 1993, he reminisced about the experience:
“On Lantau a number of bungalows had been built and are still there. We slept in our bungalows but had our meals in the common dining room which was also used for meetings and services. As children we spent the whole time out of doors and swimming in pools in the streams.
“My most vivid memory of Lantau was being there in a typhoon. We must have had some warning of the approach of the typhoon as the shutters were closed, so that the lamps had to be lit. There was no electricity, of course. We did not have long to wait before the storm hit. The noise was terrific and the wind blew quantities of water under the door into the bungalow. It seemed to go on for a long time. The next day the shutters were opened, the lamps put out and we emerged into a battered but recognisable environment.”
Considering Denis’s reference to typhoons, it’s no surprise that an earlier collection of chalets built in the 1920s out of timber at Tai Mo Shan barely survived for a year. But the Sunset Peak buildings were made to last. They consisted of stone walls 40cm thick, and window shutters bolstered by metal bars.
The stone huts today
Currently, the stone huts are privately owned. Expats own some of them; schools and church groups the others. They still have no electricity, and owners have to hike in with supplies from the nearest road. That’s a couple of kilometres away at Pak Kung Au!
In 2023, a three-year project was launched to restore one of the chalets – known as the “Caretaker’s Hut” – to its original state
This article on Lantau’s stone huts first appeared in the March 2025 edition of Expat Living. You can purchase the latest issue or subscribe so you never miss a copy!
