[jayinhongkong]

heh, when I was younger I had both wild dogs and wild boar attack my tent :P

[caroline13]

Originally Posted by Expatriate

And well, I wouldn't go hiking during the rainy season or on Annual Hill Fire Day when the locals set fire to the mountains to honor their ancestors..

Ulp! When's Annual Hill Fire Day?!! Must make sure I lock that in my calendar so that i'm not inadvertently hiking up any hill that's likely to be set on fire.

[timklip]

I can't believe everyone forgot the new public enemy number 1...the extremely deadly and generally not very nice red fire ant of yuen long!!! after all the hooplah in the papers last year, the scare has died down but i'm sure theor presence hasn't. that said i have yet to see one in person...

oh yeah...some mainlander MUST have brought them here

[caroline13]

I've been on quite a number of hikes since I've moved to HK and I haven't seen one yet. so maybe they've been wiped out? caught, boiled and coated in chocolate to be shipped off to London and sold in Selfridges?

[Expatriate]

Oh, you could find nice big crawly ants years ago in South Lantau. There was a beach, which looked beautiful from the trail on the top, but was swarming with ants.

[Expatriate]

Originally Posted by caroline13

Ulp! When's Annual Hill Fire Day?!! Must make sure I lock that in my calendar so that i'm not inadvertently hiking up any hill that's likely to be set on fire.

Grave Sweeping.

[PDLM]

There being, in fact, two such days in HK:

Ching Ming (falling on 5 April 2006) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Ming_Festival

and Chung Yeung (falling on 30 October 2006)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Ninth_Festival

The one in April is the bigger one.

[caroline13]

And they set fire to the hills on these days??? That must really 'improve' the air quality in HK on those days.

[kostas]

Actually the purprose of the festivals is not to set the hills on fire but to pay their respects to their ancestors and take care the tombs. Hill fires mostly occur because of negligence when they burn incense sticks at the tombs.

[dropdedfwed]

Originally Posted by kostas

Actually the purprose of the festivals is not to set the hills on fire but to pay their respects to their ancestors and take care the tombs. Hill fires mostly occur because of negligence when they burn incense sticks at the tombs.

that must really incense the ancestoral spirits, yes?