More Hong Kong

Tuesday August 23^rd

Today we decided to do something else we had never done before, visit Lantau Island. Getting there is somewhat easier than it was when we were last here – now you just get on the train. We took a bus downtown from our hotel, then the train to a stop just past the airport, a place called Tung Chung, which is on Lantau Island.

Tung Chung has obviously been used to house people; there are a great many multi storey apartment blocks. However, because it is now a tourist attraction, there are more giant shopping malls. We went looking for the cable car to Ngong Ping, which is where you find the giant Buddha and a famous Po Lin Buddhist monastery. The queue for the cable car was enormous, but we discovered that we could travel there by bus and back by cable car, and we took that option.

There was no queue for the bus, the journey took about 50 minutes, and the views we wonderful. In spite of the myriad of multi-storey apartments, Lantau gives the impression of being very sparsely populated. Most of the island is mountainous and heavily covered with forest, giving a velvety appearance to the slopes. The roads are narrow winding switchbacks, giving views of beautiful beaches and a wonderful blue sea dotted with small islands.

Ngong Ping itself is something of a disappointment; it’s a replica of an old Chinese village, and is really just another shopping opportunity. The heat was fierce though, so we were glad to go into a few shops just to get cool. We lunched there too, before going to look at the giant Buddha. It really is amazing how hard it is to get real Chinese food here – most of the restaurants were western, and the Chinese places had no vacant tables. Standing outside in the heat did not appeal, so we had to settle for western. We could, of course, have had a vegetarian lunch at the Po Lin monastery, but Paul would rather stick pins in his eyes than eat vegetarian food, so I didn’t even suggest it.

After lunch, we went to look at the Buddha. He really is spectacular; being 34 metres high, he is, apparently, the world’s largest seated outdoor bronze statue. The pedestal underneath the statue houses a 3 storey museum of Buddha artefacts. There are 268 steps leading up to the statue, and in spite of the baking heat, a great many people were climbing them.

We were hot and tired, and anticipated more huge queues at the cable car, so we made our way back there and found we only had a short wait. The cable car journey was also spectacular, though I have to say we enjoyed the bus more. You seem much removed from the landscape, being so high up above the forest. But it did help us to appreciate the enormity of the rehousing projects, as we looked down on the lego-like blocke of the multi-storey apartment buildings.