Lantau Island, Hong Kong

A couple weeks back, Laila and I went to Hong Kong to visit Lantau Island mainly to see the Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tan Buddha Statue.

It is the largest island in Hong Kong, located at the mouth of the Pearl River. Originally the site of fishing villages, the island has been developed in recent years with the construction of Tung Chung New Town on its north-western coast and the completion of several major infrastructure projects, including Hong Kong International Airport (1998), Hong Kong Disneyland (2005) and Ngong Ping 360 (2006). Lantau Island has a relatively low population density, with a population of 45,000, compared to 1.4 million on Hong Kong Island.

To get to the monastery and statue, we had to take the subway via numerous transfers to Tung Chung. I have never been to this town before and it was a little bit of a trek. However, the monastery and statue is on top of the mountainous Lantau Country Park and to get up there, you could 1) hike it, 2) bus it or 3) take the Ngong Ping Cable Car. We decided to take the cable car for $125 HKD ($16). It was extremely crowded and was a long wait to buy your tickets as well as board the car. The cable car provides 360 degree views of Tung Chung Bay, Hong Kong International Airport, Ngong Ping Plateau, Lantau North Country Park, Tian Tan Buddha Statue, and Ngong Ping Village and the ride is about 3.5 miles. At the end of the journey, you reach Ngong Ping Village which is basically a tourist trap based on a fake Chinese-themed style village with a couple restaurants as well as expensive souvenir and gift stores. Next to the village is the statue and monastery.

Again, the main reason we went here were for the monastery and statue. The Tian Tan Buddha, also known as the Big Buddha, is a large bronze statue of Buddha Amoghasiddhi and was completed in 1993. It is a major center of Buddhism in Hong Kong and is also a popular tourist attraction. The Buddha statue sits on a lotus throne and is surrounded by six smaller bronze statues. The Buddha is 112 feet tall and was the world's tallest outdoor bronze seated Buddha prior to 2007. It reputedly can even be seen from as far away as Macau on a clear day. You have to climb 240 steps in order to reach the Buddha.

We soon came to realize – once we were already in the cable car, and we probably should have realized this earlier – that the fog and mist would be a serious problem. It made our visit not worth the time or effort, at least in my opinion. The Buddha is huge and you're suppose to see it while approaching in the cable car sitting on top of the mountain but you could not really see hardly anything directly in front of you. It was very frustrating. In fact, even at the bottom of the stairs, you would have no idea what was up there due to the fog. Look at the pics below and if you want or have time, go on the web, do a search, and see what the Buddha is suppose to look like on a clear day. Of course, the cable car company knew you would not be able to see anything once you went up there but they're not going to tell you that and let you walk away.

The pics below are of the cable car and from the cable car. The third pic below is the airport – which I'll use to go home for good shortly.

The next few pics were taken of a gate in the village. The fog was insane. These pics were taken like two in the afternoon.

The next few pics are of the Giant Buddha. The fog was terrible. I did meet four girls who stopped me – as I was wearing my Villanova tee – as they all went to Drexel. Small world; here we are thousands of miles away yet our universities are not even ten miles from each other in PA.

Next to the Giant Buddha is Po Lin Monastery which is a Buddhist monastery founded in 1906 by three monks visiting from Jiangsu and was initially known simply as "The Big Hut.” It was renamed to its present name in 1924. The main temple houses three bronze statues of the Buddha – representing his past, present and future lives – as well as many Buddhist scriptures. The monastery had a delicious vegetarian cafe/restaurant in which we enjoyed some lunch – I had some rice, a spring roll, and three different versions of mock meat. See pics below of Po Lin.

 

The fog was very depressing but we took the return cable car and got a beer next to the cable car terminal – of course, it was clear at the bottom – before we traveled back on the subway to go to downtown Hong Kong. We then headed back to Shenzhen in the early evening.