The trails and vistas of Asian cities that travellers are overlooking

Asia’s cities are sometimes maligned and typecast as heaving concrete jungles bedevilled by chaotic or crawling traffic and the non-stop whirring of tens of thousands of motorcycles.

India’s cities have long had a bad reputation for smog and pollution, while Jakarta, Indonesia’s vast capital, is notorious for the ‘macet’ – two and three-hour commutes that should ordinarily take no more than 10 or 15 minutes in free-flowing traffic.

But for all that, some of Asia’s cities have worthwhile hikes and treks. Staff at travel booking provider Agoda have listed five of their favourites, which give an “unmatched perspective on some of Asia’s most dynamic cities” and offers “the perfect blend of city life and nature.”

The least physically demanding – despite the sometimes baking heat or monsoon-season humidity and downpours – is the Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s biggest city and home to the Petronas Twin Towers, the world’s tallest building for a time in the 1990s.

Offering the “unique experience of trekking through a tropical rainforest right in the city centre,” the trail is “relatively easy,” the Agoda team said.

Visitors to Taipei were urged to try the “short but rewarding climb” of Elephant Hill, where they can get great views of the Taiwanese city’s renowned skyline.

Down the road from Kuala Lumpur, Singapore – carefully planned and self-consciously modern – has gardens and green spaces aplenty, including Pulau Ubin, a small island with bike and walk trails along mangroves and where kampong or village life has been frozen in time, or so the slogans go, as it was in the 1960s.

The Agoda team, however, recommends the Southern Ridges trail, a 10-kilometre “moderate hike through a series of interconnected parks and gardens.”

For a more demanding walk, go to Seoul and trek up Namsan to the landmark N Seoul Tower for soaring views of the city below and, for lovebirds, the chance to hang a padlock with the couple’s name on it – similar to the Pont des Arts in Paris.

The toughest trek on Agoda’s list is the Dragon’s Back, which takes the hiker up and down and up again to get a spectacular view down onto Hong Kong and out to the South China Sea.

It should go without saying, of course, that the region has other worthwhile city hikes besides those listed by Agoda.

In better days – before the military retook control in 2021 and the country descended again into civil war, Myanmar or Burma’s biggest city Yangon (or Rangoon) meant for travellers the chance to stroll around Inya Lake, the floral waterfront a world away from the city’s incessant traffic, absent footpaths and sideward-angled expectorations of betel plants.

And across the Myanmar-Thailand border is Chiang Mai and a rolling tree-lined trail up Doi Suthep, a 1,600-metre hill atop which is a striking 14th century Buddhist temple of the same name and the last leg of the trek a 306-step staircase.

Far to the south, East Timor’s low-rise capital Dili sits under hills that an adventurous traveller can try to hike. Easier is a 5-6 kilometer coastal walk from the town’s edge to Cristo Rei (Christ the King) beach, the route along palm beaches and the sizzle of freshly-caught fish feeling the heat of smoking charcoal.

From there, another climb and more steps: 570 of them up to a mini-replica of the famous Rio de Janeiro Christ the Redeemer statue and spectacular views along the northern coast of East Timor.