Big Buddha on Lantau Island, Hong Kong

From the subway stop we walked to the cable cars that go up the mountain to the Big Buddha. It was an easy walk to the cable car station, but we waited in line for the cable car for about ½ hour to get our tickets.  The cable car does not take the Octopus card. There are two different types of cars that you can choose: Standard (HK$50) and Crystal Clear (HK$70). We could not get a clear distinction from the ticket vendor of the difference but we bought tickets for the Crystal Clear. After getting on the car we figured out the difference, Crystal Clear has a glass floor, the Standard has a metal floor. Even though it costs more, the Crystal Clear is worth it, not so much for the view, but for the wait in line. The Crystal Clear waiting line is shorter than the standard line and following strict adherence to rules, the operators would let a Crystal Clear car go empty instead of putting someone from the Standard line in it.  When we decided to head back down, we were the only ones in the Crystal car whereas the Standard line had several people waiting for their cars.

At the subway station

Going from the subway to the cable car


 Long flight of stairs to get to the ticketing office of the Ngong Ping 360 cable rides.
 

View from the Crystal Clear floor

It was a nice ride and the 360 view was great. The operators take pictures of you when you get on the car and then try to sell you souvenir pictures at the opposite end.

Approaching Lantau Island where Big Buddha sits on one of the mountains.

View of the reclaimed area which is now the sprawling HK International Airport:

Aerial view of the many high rise apartments.  This is a common sight in HK as flat land is scarce so the only way to go is to build up.

 Our first glimpse of Big Buddha perched atop a mountain:

Big Buddha from cable car

Big Buddha from cable car

Souvenir picture

At the top of the mountain where the cable cars stop is Ngong Ping Village. When you get off the cable car you exit through a gift shop. This is a tourist village with restaurants, gift shops, museums and shows. We passed through the village to get to the Big Buddha and Monastery.

The open plaza where cultural shows are performed for the visitors:

Big Buddha can be seen while you wander around shops, museums and restaurants.

The monastery area contains several buildings and statues. Several of the buildings are for prayers  and meditations and they did not want pictures taken inside these buildings.  Incense are burned at designated places all over the area.  We've seen all sizes of them from the small ones to big ones that are almost like 12 inches in diameter or bigger and about 3 feet long.  There are also feral cows wandering around the monastery grounds.

After walking around the monastery, we climbed the stairs to the Big Buddha.

At the bottom of the Big Buddha, there are several traditional Chinese Street Eateries.  Someone once said "When you're in Rome, do what the Romans do."  We say when you're in HK, eat what the HKs eat.  Although there were restaurants offering Western menus, Michael demanded to try their street food.  We had fried wontons, steamed corn, steamed kamote (a type of sweet potato) and sausage. It was very good.

Mike liked the Big Buddha Cat at the foot of the mountain.

Join us in the next post as we continue our journey in Hong Kong. Thanks!