Day 5 Hong Kong (Lantau Island)
Place of Interest
Back to my writing. Have been busy with school stuff and students’ union work. Anyway, one of the famous attraction in Hong Kong is the Tian Tan Sitting Buddha which is located in Ngong Ping Village in Lantau Island. It’s very near the airport. More details here.
Transportation
Before that, to reach Ngong Ping Village, you can either take bus or taxi from the Tung Chung MTR station. Alternatively, you can choose the Ngong Ping 360, a Skyrail which is a cable car ride. Click here for the official site. The cost is HK$ 88 for a return trip. There are other packages that you can take like visit to the Monkey’s Tale Theatre and Walking with Buddha. You can find the packages available in the official site. I only decided to visit the Tian Tan Sitting Buddha. The first cable car is at 10am so I tried to catch the first one. Yup, I succeeded in being the first passenger of the day. (Wow, what an achievement. Err…) And when I reached there at 9.30am, the queue was already building up. I was the tenth person. When the door opens for purchasing of tickets, the 9 person in front of me were busy at the counter looking at the packages available. By the way, there are a lot of ticket counters- 15 of them if I’m not mistaken. Since I’ve decided to only visit the sitting buddha, I just bought my return ticket and walked to the cable car boarding area. First person and I also have the whole cable car for myself. That’s awesome. The ride was about 20-30 minutes and along the way, you’ll see very nice views. You can also see planes on the runway taking off in the international airport nearby.
As I’m the first person to reach the other station, it feels a bit awkward as a lot of staff looked and greeted me.
The Buddha is just a walking distance from the station. Along the way, you’ll pass by the Ngong Ping Village. The Buddha is 34 meters high, weighs 250 tons, and is the world’s tallest outdoor bronze seated Buddha. At the base, there’s this circle structure of which when you stand right in the centre, you’ll hear even the slightest wisper. But I only heard my echo because no one was around at that time. And this is how I get such a nice shot. There’s a similar and bigger place in Beijing too. It’s in Tian Tan Temple. Check out the photos.
Beijing’s circle was “endorsed” by the Emperor before. 
To reach the Sitting Buddha, you’ll have to climb 268 steps (based on Wiki facts). Po Lin Monastery and the Buddha are open to the public between 10:00 and 17:45. Access to the Buddha is free of charge. An entrance fee of HK$ 23 is charged for access to the exhibition halls below the Buddha and includes a vegetarian meal (HK$ 60 for the deluxe dinner) served on the monastery grounds (from 11:30 to 17:00). Frankly speaking, I did not find anything exceptional in the exhibition halls. I think the main attraction is actually the buddha’s relic. But I’ve seen them (a lot of them during the Buddha Tooth Relic exhibition in Singapore Expo in 2004). So, it’s not really new to me.
This is a very nice view. It feels like I have the whole place to myself.
Halfway through the climbing up process.
Beneath the Buddha, about to enter the exhibition halls. This picture was taken using tripod too. Had to run up the stairs before the timer ends.
When the crowd starts to come at about 11am, I was on my way down to my next location. Before that here’s another angle of the Sitting Buddha. I love my camera and tripod. Or maybe I have hidden talent in photo taking. Oops.. Haha.
Nearby is the Po Lin Monastery. It’s a famous temple and I think it should be crowded during the festive days.
This is where I had my free vegetarian meal.
After that I proceed to the Wisdom Path. It’s very large wooden inscription of the Heart Sutra set within a figure 8 to symbolize infinity. There is a great scenic view of the Tian Tan Buddha if you climb all the way to the top of the hill. But I failed to find the exact location.
Climb up a stone to have this pic. Don’t know why but I like this shot the most. Could be the way I posed. Hehe.
This is the Lantau Peak and the Wisdom Path Sutra in the background. But to climb up the place, you must be really careful. It’s very steep so one step at a time.
In the centre of the sutra. In the photo, it seems like there’s no other visitors at that time too.
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