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Stunning waterfalls amid lush forest. Take the camera and wear sensible shoes.

The pool is a popular picnic spot. Weekends are best avoided, but visit midweek and, with luck, you will have this glorious, wooded course of rockpools and cascades all to yourself.

It may be only 7 miles (11 km) directly south of Hong Kong’s busy Central district, but Cape D’Aguilar feels like another world. The wild coastline has wave-lashed rock formations and a marine life so rich that researchers have discovered 20 species “new to science” in these waters.

Central’s futuristic office towers and concrete canyons give way to the low-rise charm of antique shops, galleries and bars the further west you go, ending up in Western’s archetypal Chinese shopping streets and docksides. A must. (see Hong Kong Island – Northwest)

Various walks and beaches on offer here. From Tai Au Mun, you can walk to the less than inspiringly named Clearwater Bay Beach One and Beach Two or Lung Ha Wan (Lobster Bay). Shark sightings send the locals into a lather each summer, and recently holes have been found in some nets. You’ve been warned.

On weekends this short walkway from Kowloon Star Ferry around past the Inter-Continental is invaded by innumerable families and their rampaging children. At other times, though, it offers one of the most animated harbour views you will see anywhere (see Cultural Centre).

The long inlets and sheltered coves of this 260 hectare marine park in northern Sai Kung are made for snorkelling. Stony coral and reef fish galore.

Take these steep steps up the rock from Three Fathom’s Cove, and enter an expanse of remote uplands and boulder-strewn paths, leading, in the north, to Mount Hallowes. There are exquisite views of the Tolo Channel.

Relatively inaccessible little gem of a beach. Don’t get too carried away with the view as you descend the vertiginous goat track, or you may find yourself at the bottom sooner than you intended.