Tangs daily walk up The Peak, Hong Kong

March 2016 saw us boarding a plane to Hong Kong for 10 days. It had been 25 years since we had last visited Hong Kong so we were very excited to be offered this house sit to look after Tang, a beautiful 12 month old energetic cross breed rescue dog.

We arrived in Hong Kong the evening before our house sit to meet Tang and go over our responsibilities for Tang and the apartment.

The apartment was a small one bedroom apartment on Hong Kong Island on the 5th floor (100 steps) of a small apartment building located next to the Man Mo Temple, so the location was perfect for exploring Hong Kong.

Tang had no access to a yard and her only exercise (and toileting)  was her 3 daily walks and this was a high priority for her ‘mum and dad’. Fortunately for Tang Jacqueline loves walking, and exploring the sights on foot, so they were a perfect match.

Each morning Jacqueline would set her alarm for 6am and walk Tang to The Peak. This is a popular tourist attraction and lookout and the walk was a vigorous 1hr 45mins uphill and return. Jacqueline and Tang loved every minute of it.

We would take Tang for her second walk around 1-2pm to the local Dog Park. This is a fenced area solely for the purpose for dogs to interact off-lead. There could be anywhere between 2-25 dogs and to our surprise there was never any aggression between the dogs and it was great to meet other ‘dog lovers’. Tang would chase her ball or play with any of the other dogs that were there.

Her third and final walk was usually after dinner and we would wander the ‘streets’ exploring markets and seeing Hong Kong at night.

In between our walks with Tang we would visit the sights of Hong Kong. Unfortunately, Hong Kong is not what I would consider a ‘dog friendly’ country. There are many parks and gardens that we had planned to visit with Tang, but dogs are not allowed, and should you unintentionally wander into these areas, someone would  promptly ask you to leave. However, we were able to take Tang on some of the local ferries and took advantage of this with a trip to Discovery Bay on Lantau Island.

Walking Tang at regular intervals was important so some of our outings required careful planning. For example, our visit to the Big Buddha necessitated us having to leave the apartment soon after returning from Tang’s morning walk and getting back in time for her afternoon walk. But all our planning almost came undone when our return cable car ride stopped. Fortunately the delay was only 10 minutes and we returned back to the apartment by 2pm for Tang’s walk.

What can we say about Tang? – she was a beautiful and energetic dog as you would expect for being 1 year old. Tang was also incredibly well behaved in the flat. She was very quiet and would happily sit on the couch or her bed, but the moment you walked to the front door and picked-up her lead, you had her full attention.

We will certainly miss Tang and walking up those 100 steps. Tang’s mum and dad are school teachers and go on regular holidays…..so who knows…we could be back.