editorial

Just over the hill from the glitz and glamour of the Cotai Strip, a historic walking route immerses visitors in Coloane’s quintessential laid-back charm.
<figure id="attachment_141061" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141061" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-141061 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Coloane-Hiking.jpg" alt="The view across the Shizhimen Channel to Hengqin Island; a signpost along the Seac Min Pun trail." width="1200" height="894" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Coloane-Hiking.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Coloane-Hiking-300x224.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Coloane-Hiking-1024x763.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Coloane-Hiking-768x572.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-141061" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: The view across the Shizhimen Channel to Hengqin Island; a signpost along the Seac Min Pun trail. (All photos: James Louie)</figcaption></figure>
The golden-gray sweep of Hac Sa Beach looks fiendishly inviting on a hot weekday morning. But I sigh and turn away from the sand. I’ve come to Macau’s southern fringes to hike the Coloane Seac Min Pun Ancient Path, a nearly 1.4-kilometer-long trail that was once the sole overland route between the villages of Hac Sa and Coloane. After falling into disuse with the arrival of a paved road in the 1960s, the forgotten track was restored and reopened at the turn of the millennium. I’m curious as to where it will take me.
At its starting point, an easy stroll from the bus stop above Hac Sa Beach, the pathway quickly ascends into the trees. Yellow butterflies dance in the air to a soundtrack of other critters, the occasional caw or tweet from unseen birds, and a babbling mountain brook pulled inexorably toward the South China Sea. Surrounded by dense subtropical greenery, I feel a thousand miles away from Cotai’s shopping malls or the teeming streets around the Ruins of St. Paul’s.
Seac Min Pun is no walk in the park; it alternates between steep stair climbs and mercifully flat sections. Signboards along the path detail some of Macau’s endemic fauna: the black-collared starling; a beautiful butterfly species known as the Ceylon blue glassy tiger; the venomous white-lipped pit viper that—if the description is to be believed—doesn’t often attack unprovoked. Another sign identifies a native sweet gum tree, whose leaves turn a vivid red during the autumn months.
Where the track meets the Coloane Trail, an 8.1-kilometer-long circuit of Coloane’s craggy central hills, I encounter a pensioner fanning herself at a stone table. We exchange Cantonese morning greetings (“Zou san!”) before bemoaning the summer temperatures. Farther on, a relentless stairway leads to the highest natural point in Macau, 172 meters above sea level. The August heat dispels any thoughts of attempting the climb.
Soon, the trees part to reveal vistas across the narrow channel to mainland China’s fast-developing Hengqin Island. In a wooded valley downhill, I seek out the small geographic feature that gave the trail its name. Beside a red inscription reading SEAC MIN PUN, spring water spurts and flows between two rocks into a bowl-shaped basin where passersby once quenched their thirst. I take a sip from my water bottle and keep on walking. In one of the world’s most densely populated places, it’s heartening to know there are quiet corners where nature still reigns.
<figure id="attachment_141048" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141048" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-141048 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Coloane-Seac-Min-Pun-Ancient-Path-Duo.jpg" alt="The rock inscription beside the Seac Min Pun rock pool; a stairway on the trail." width="1200" height="894" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-141048" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: The rock inscription beside the Seac Min Pun rock pool; a stairway on the trail.</figcaption></figure>
This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://subscription.destinasian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">October/November 2024</a> print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Walk This Way”).

Coloane Seac Min Pun Ancient Path - Featured Image

Exploring the Coloane Seac Min Pun Ancient Path