Sai Kung’s Po Pin Chau trail fully booked ahead of upcoming holidays, as Hong Kong expects 1.3m mainland visitors

Sai Kung’s popular Po Pin Chau trail has been fully booked for part of the upcoming National Day holiday, when Hong Kong expects to see some 1.3 million arrivals from mainland China over the weeklong vacation.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said in a Facebook post on Thursday that no available time slots are left for the High Island Geo Trail – Po Pin Chau Section on Friday and Saturday next week.

Bookings are also full for this Friday and Saturday during Mid-Autumn Festival, the country park managers added, although a small number of openings remain on other days of the mainland’s Golden Week break to celebrate the founding of the People’s Republic.

The AFCD introduced a trial booking system last month for the site, which has seen a surge in visitors as views of the sea stack’s volcanic rock columns went viral on Chinese social media platforms like Xiaohongshu, turning the remote path into a magnet for tourists “checking-in” online.

Visitors are required to book in advance for all weekends and public holidays beginning in September and ending on October 7—measures intended to stem ecological damage from overtourism and prevent accidents like the one that took the life of a mainland visitor on New Year’s Eve last year.

The AFCD recommends that hikers who fail to secure a spot on the Po Pin Chau trail go to the nearby Biu Tsim Kok viewing point instead, which offers similar views but does not require advance booking.

Hong Kong’s Immigration Department projects that around 1.29 million mainland Chinese will visit the city over the National Day holiday, which begins October 1. That equates to about 184,286 visitors daily—five per cent more than last year.

Lantern Spectacular extended

Responding to “overwhelming public interest,” the Hong Kong Tourism Board has announced that its International Lantern Spectacular in Victoria Park will be extended through part of the National Day holiday.

The event, which brings giant lanterns from 20 countries to Causeway Bay for the Mid-Autumn Festival, will now run nightly until October 4.

Installations will be lit daily from 6.30pm to 11pm, with extended lighting hours until midnight on Mid-Autumn Day on Friday.

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Irene Chan is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press and has an interest in covering political and social change. She previously worked at Initium Media as chief editor for Hong Kong news and was a community organiser at the Society for Community Organisation serving the underprivileged. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Fudan University and a master’s degree in social work from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Irene is the recipient of two Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards and three honourable mentions for her investigative, feature and video reporting. She also received a Human Rights Press Award for multimedia reporting and an honourable mention for feature writing.