DRAGONS BACK (REVISITED)

When M's parents were in town in December, we took them on the Dragon's Back hike, which I posted about last year. It was our 2nd time completing the hike and we enjoyed it even more than the first since we were in such great company.

The hike was much hillier than I remembered and the ground was uneven in several places. After selling my in-laws on a "leisurely" hike that was "easy" and "flat," I felt terrible when we hit some of the more difficult stretches. Everyone was a bit surprised by the difficulty... and rightfully so based on my description.

Love this view with the city peaking out through the hills

After the 2+ hour hike, you can reward yourself with a hearty lunch in Shek O. We recommend two lunch spots after the hike. The first is the Shek O Chinese & Thai restaurant which serves up better Thai food than we found in Thailand. We definitely recommend their tom yum soup and curries. Our 2nd recommendation is Black Sheep restaurant if you are in the mood for delicious Italian pizza, a difficult find in HK. We really enjoyed the mushroom pizza.

IT'S SNOWING IN TIANJIN & BEIJING!

It's a gorgeous 72 degree sunny day in Hong Kong today. Have I mentioned that I have not seen snow this entire winter? I know... so strange having grown up in the mid-west!

That all changed this past week while on a business trip. I flew about 4 hours north to Tianjin, China and was greeted by snow dusted streets! Very exciting!

View from my hotel room (on a lake) in Tianjin

I was also greeted by the recent high pollution levels that are impacting the Beijing/Tianjin area as you can see if the picture above. Thankfully I did not spend too much time outside, but I did purchase my first face masks in case of emergency. On a side note, I will be taking my dad to Beijing in 2 weeks for his first trip to China. I am hoping we will be able to see more than 2 feet of the Great Wall:)

I didn't have time to explore much of Tianjin, but I did leave wanting to book another trip just for sightseeing. The British and French settled in the city during the foreign concession era. So similar to Shanghai, Tianjin's architecture was greatly influenced by the Europeans. It's a very charming city.

A house in the 5 Avenues Area

Celebratory lights for Chinese New Year

We had dinner one night in the "5 Avenues Area" at a GREAT Chinese vegetarian restaurant called Twin Lotus which is located in an old historic European home. It's especially hard to find good vegetarian restaurants in China, so we were all pleasantly surprised. While in Tianjin, we also had dinner one night at the Din Tai Fung restaurant (great Taiwanese restaurant chain), a must when visiting China or Taiwan. I am constantly craving their soup dumplings!

On Wednesday, we traveled from Tianjin to Beijing via a 40 minute express train. I've been traveling frequently to China for a year now and I am always impressed with how modern the cities are becoming. Even in just a year, I have seen much progress. Check out Tianjin's modern train station below, a much improved version of the train stations I frequented when traveling throughout the East Coast.

My trip to Beijing was rather short with just 36 hours and a packed work itinerary. Although, I did get to walk in some snow (yay!) and eat at a very cool vegetarian restaurant.

We had dinner Wednesday at Pure Lotus, a vegetarian restaurant that serves up the most artistic and tasty dishes.

We were greeted by this Monk

He showed us the way to the restaurant with his brightly lit lantern

The interior was extremely colorful

We had the delicious vegetarian sushi for our fist dish

Followed by the roast "duck" which tastes just like the real thing!

We also had the sweet and sour tofu

Followed by delicious carrot cake

And winter melon

After a quick trip to Beijing, I departed on a flight for Hong Kong hoping that the air quality improves and the weather warms up for my Dad's visit in less than 2 weeks. I am beyond excited to celebrate the Chinese New Year in Beijing with him!