Dragon's Back

The first weekend without my family here was spent trying to catch up on things I had completely neglected for a few weeks like tidying and cleaning! However, on Sunday, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather (18 degrees and cloudless and sunny) and try one of the most popular hikes in Hong Kong, the Dragon’s Back Trail. Hiking is a really popular activity in Hong Kong especially from about November onwards when the weather gets cooler and the humidity drops. While all in England move indoors, Hong Kong emerges outdoors after months in the air conditioned buildings during the humid summer months. There are four popular trails which seem to span most of Hong Kong some on the island and some in the New Territories an some seem to span the entirety of the city! It is an incredible way to see the island and take in the fantastic views of Hong Kong. While the entire trail would take days to complete, they are all broken down in to more family friendly sections, which people can easily do in a day. The Dragon’s Back is a 5 mile part of the Hong Kong trail, which took us up across hills on the south side of Hong Kong Island overlooking the bays and mansions of Shek O on the south of Hong Kong Island and then headed down in to Big Wave Bay for lunch! It took us two hours and we saw some incredible scenery along the way. There was a perfect breeze, the sun shone, and there was a mixture of flat and up and down hills.

It is one of the best things about Hong Kong, that in 20 minutes you can move from endless skyscrapers and crowds in to woods and country parks and beaches, and because the walk takes you across the top of the hills ‘the dragon’s back’ you can see incredible views of the island from both sides of the path for much of the route. We came back determined to go hiking and explore more of these hiking routes!