I “saved” Dragon’s Back for the last day because I knew it would be my most memorable activity in Hong Kong. There was a risk though; almost every 12 hours three days prior to the hike I anxiously checked the weather forecast as the chance of thunderstorms would increase or decrease. With the rainy season, a downpour lasting 5 minutes could easily be followed by an hour of sunshine.
By a stroke of luck, we woke up that morning to our first full day of blue skies and few clouds. No rain for this hike, whoohoo!
Thanks to the information on this blog, we rode the MTR to Chai Wan. From there, we walked a couple short blocks and then hiked up a seemingly endless amount of stairs through a densely packed cemetery. The humidity probably amounted to several pounds of sweaty weight loss. More views of eastern Hong Kong awaited us.
At the top of the cemetery were even more stairs!
Insanely gigantic spiders awaited us.
When we finished climbing the stairs, we found ourselves strolling through the pleasant, shaded woods.
The woods led us to some more stairs:
And finally, we were rewarded with spectacular views from the top of Dragon’s Back.
Chris took a photosphere, which you should definitely check out here.
From the top, one could easily gaze down upon Shek-O Beach.
So we made our way down toward the beach.
Shek-O was lovely. The water temperature was perfect and the calm waves resembled a lake.
After relaxing and swimming at the beach, we took a taxi into the charming town of Stanley where we enjoyed an Italian lunch, some red wine, chocolate cake, and a plate of cheese. Taking a break in Stanley really made me feel like we were back home in California.
Our final day spent at Dragon’s Back, Shek-O Beach, and Stanley was truly a vacation away from the chaotic Hong Kong. Because of the steep climb, just a slight level of fitness is required which can easily turn off the lazy, dependent tourist–thumbs up for me!
When I first arrived at Hong Kong, I had my doubts on whether or not I would like it. Fortunately, it was just a culture shock that needed some rubbing off. After my last day, I knew that there would be some things I would miss (other than the pork buns) and I can now easily say without hesitation that I’d like to return.
Happy to see you like Hong Kong!