The vision of Hong Kong in my mind’s eye before our recent visit was quite similar to the Hong Kong that I described in my last blog; soaring skyscrapers of glass and steel amalgamated into an iconic skyline along the harbour, double-decker trams gliding through busy streets, flashing noticeboards competing for attention. However, Hong Kong is a lot more diverse than I realised. It is made up of 3 distinct geographical regions – Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and The New Territories – divided by their historical time of acquisition by the UK.
My last blog focused on the areas we visited in Kong Kong Island and Kowloon, but two of the attractions that we wanted to see – the ‘Big Buddah’ and Tai O fishing village – required us to take a day-trip to Lantau Island (see left hand side of the map below), part of The New Territories. Lantau is the largest of Hong Kong’s islands (almost twice the size of HK Island itself), and more than half is covered by mountainous country parkland.
The Hong Kong metro system conveniently links Hong Kong Island to Kowloon and on to Lantau, but to reach the Big Buddah we had to take the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car from the Tung Chung terminal to Ngong Ping village. It’s a popular route (despite arriving early we still spent an hour snaking up and down roped-aisles in the ticket queue*), but once we were up-and-away the panoramic view from the carriage was incredible!
* For a few extra dollars you can get a ‘Crystal’ cabin which is glass bottomed; we bought Crystal tickets for the return journey which turned out to be a good idea since the queue for Crystal on the way up was huge while on the way back it was actually much smaller than for the normal cabins.
At 5.7km the ‘Ngong Ping 360’ is the longest bi-cable ropeway in Asia.
Stunning view over Tung Chung Bay.
As we neared the end of the cable car journey the silhouette of the Tian Tan Buddha – informally known as the ‘Big Buddha’ – materialized on the horizon, sitting atop a tree-covered hill, surrounded by an endless sea of tree-covered hills. It was a misty morning and the sight was quite magical.
Exiting the cable car terminal we followed the stream of people into Ngong Ping village, and were funneled past a collection of souvenir shops, noodle restaurants, teahouses, a Starbucks and a Subway. The whole village looked incredibly new and reminded me of a ski-resort with it’s single-story wooden-roofed buildings (the bright blue sky and crisp winter air probably helped with the association).
The Tian Tan Buddha is a seated representation of Lord Gautama (on whose teachings Buddhism was founded) and was unveiled in 1993 to symbolise the harmonious nature between man and nature, people and faith. Cast in bronze he is 26m high (34m if you count the base podium), weighs 250 metric tons and faces North towards mainland China to look over the Chinese people.
His gigantic shape loomed above us as we climbed the steep flight of steps up the hill, getting ever larger as we got higher until he captivated our entire view. At the top we could walk a full circle around the viewing platform beneath the Buddha, and were rewarded by a beautiful view over Ngong Ping village and the remote ‘Po Lin’ Buddhist monastery and temple complex (built in 1924).
Surrounding the Buddha are six smaller bronze statues known as “The Offering of the Six Devas” that are posed offering gifts of flowers, incense, a lamp, ointment, fruit, and music.
Our journey to see the Buddha was long compared the the 20-or-so minutes we spent there, but I would really recommend making the effort; it was a truly hypnotic sight and a meaningful demonstration of the commitment to the Buddhist faith in this area.
From Ngong Ping we caught the #21 bus to Tao O on Lantau’s west coast, a 15 minute journey in which Lantau island morphed in front of our eyes from alpine-esque ski-resort to Cornish-esque fishing village. Little boats bobbed in the harbour and – in contrast to the pretty chalets in Ngong Ping – the surrounding buildings looked weather-beaten and functional.
We entered the village through a street lined with trestle-tables laden with miscellaneous dried fish and seafood, glistening like crystals in the cold winter sunlight. For a fishing village it didn’t really smell of fish, although I imagine that may change in the summer months! The leaflet we collected with our cable car ticket listed local delicacies as shrimp paste, salted egg yolks and fish, steamed glutinous rice cakes and rice dumplings.
It was approaching lunchtime and we were craving something hot to warm us up, so we ducked into a tiny restaurant (essentially the front room of someone’s house) and ordered steaming bowls of noodle soup with cuttlefish (Matt) and wantons filled with shrimp and pork (me). It was delicious, and really hit the spot.
Our energy topped up, we continued through the village until we reached the ramshackle web of interconnected stilt houses which are home to the Tanka people, a community of around 2,000 fishermen and women who’ve built their houses on stilts above the tidal flats of Lantau Island for generations. Their homes are at once sturdy – with concrete stilts driven deep into the seabed – and incredibly fragile, as evidenced by those which have succumbed to the watery elements.
Apparently Tai O used to be one of the biggest villages on Lantau with 30,000 residents, but the stability of a 9-5 job downtown has drawn most young people away from the traditional fishing lifestyle; the remaining residents now rely on tourism to supplement the income from fishing.
While exploring the labyrinth of stilt houses via the rickety wooden walkways we came across the Three Lanterns Cafe, where a friendly lady informed us of their open-door policy and welcomed us to take a look at the view from the upstairs terrace; here we found three small tables and a great view over the rope-drawn ferry bridge.
We decided to stay for a slice of cheesecake and some jasmine green tea and ended up chatting with the co-owner, a guy from Devon (UK) who it turned out was married to the lady who invited us in. He told us that he spends half his time in the UK and the other half in Tai-O helping to run the cafe, a favourite location for professional and amateur photographers alike who are keen to capture the moment the sun sets above the bridge in the distance.
Once I’d exhausted every photo opportunity in the village we made our way back to the bus stop, but not before we had tasted some of the street-food snacks… delicious!
Matt: crushed peanuts in a glutinous rice dumpling. Emma: Egg waffle.
We had an incredible time in Hong Kong – the lingering Britishness of Hong Kong Island was just what I needed on the run up to Christmas (I’ve since devoured the M&S mince pies that we smuggled back to Shanghai!). I enjoyed the tram ride up Victoria Peak and the view over the city, and I could have spent a whole week wandering around the narrow SoHo streets; however, Tai O village was the highlight of the trip for me. The collection of stilt houses was unlike anything I’ve seen before and – for the moment at least – it still feels authentic. Plus, you can’t beat a good egg waffle!
Most fantastic.i really like budha the prophet of peace n non-voleince.most amaging hong kong.
Yes, it was very special to see the Buddha!