Where: High West, Hong Kong Island
Height: 494m, 1,621ft
On Christmas Eve, My dad and I went to High West and then hiked down to Pokfulam Reservoir. We didn’t just go alone; we also went with our friends, Hanson and his mom and dad. We have been to High West many times now. Even though it’s close to the Peak, very few people go there or even know about it. Because it’s so high there is a trig station there. The views are great from High West. To the north you can see as far as Sham Shui Po.
To the West, you can see Mount Davis and Lamma Island.
It was a cold, windy and hazy day to begin with. Later it brightened up and got warmer.
After we walked back down, we went along the west side of High West and stopped for lunch where there is a British pillbox from World War 2 at the end of Harlech Road. The pillbox has been made a memorial and there is some information about it on a sign. There were 7 soldiers to operate the pillbox and 3 heavy machine guns. 2 men fired each machine gun while the 7th would get the ammunition for them. It was in a great position for defending because it has a high vantage point and it could shoot in 3 directions. Historical sites from WW2 have been in the news recently (Hong Kong Standard Newspaper link) since the Faculty of Architecture at HKU did a study of WW2 pillboxes in Hong Kong (link). Many are ruins and bats are living in some! I think that we should preserve these pillboxes because they help explain HK’s history and they are a memorial to the bravery of the soldiers who defended Hong Kong, even knowing that they couldn’t win. You can hear about it from RTHK. There are lots of other military sites near High West, like Mt Davis and the Pinewood Battery.
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