To be fair to Mat, there was some conflation going on earlier on in the thread where comparisons were being made of the HK hills with the Alps. The simple point was that they are not comparable. However - I think Mat's (sensible, it seems to me) point is that its inaccurate to compare The Alps with HK hills because of the proximity of the latter to the financial city in which one lives v. the Alps. Points were then made re: the Chilterns/Downs, which are more proximate to London than the Alps, and would therefore be a better comparison to the HK hills. And the discussion kinda exploded from there in a bit of a silly way. The issue that the likes of @SpeakCantonese have yet to grapple with, though, is that UK weather does not allow for hiking in the Chilterns/Downs for over 6 months of the year, so the point about the year round accessibilty of hiking in HK remains.