Hong Kong (4th Day) : Cable Car, Ngong Ping Village - Po Lin Monastery and Big Buddha
December 28, 2016
It was our fourth and last day in Hong Kong, our flight back to Manila was scheduled at 7:10 PM but we're not done with our tour yet. We still have one more place to visit in our itinerary, Lantau Island. We were quite excited to experience the famous Hong Kong Cable Car, explore Ngong Ping Village, visit Po Lin Monastery and meet the Big Buddha. We really wanted to stay longer but our job and a lot of other things were waiting for us so we had to end our tour. If only we could get a job in Hong Kong in an instant and live there as long as we want :).
We woke up as early as 7:00 AM packed our things and the pasalubongs, prepared ourselves and around 8:30 AM we bid our farewells to our nice and little-comfy hotel. While on our way out we passed by the two friendly hotel crews ( i think they were pure Chinese ), they asked us if we're checking out and thanked us for staying at the hotel. It was a rainy and cold Sunday morning in HK. With our luggage and pasalubongs, we head to the subway nearest to our hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui station and started our final tour in HK.
Where to stay in Hong Kong? Click [HERE]
How to go to Ngong Ping 360 from Tsim Sha Tsui
- From Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station, take the Tseun Wan Line (the Red Line) and alight at Lai King Interchange.
- From Lai King, just right across is the Tung Chung Line. Hop into the train and alight at Tung Chung Station.
- Exit at Exit B at the Tung Chung Station and from there you will find the City Gate Mall and right beside it is the entrance to Ngong Ping Cable car. Follow the signs and you will not get lost. Trust me, HK is a very tourist friendly country.
Click [HERE] for affordable Hong Kong Accommodations
We roamed around City Gate Outlets first as it was raining hard when we arrived at Tung Chung so we waited for the rain to stop. It was around 9:30 AM when the rain stopped so we immediately went Nong Ping ticket counter, we were quite lucky because the area wasn't jam packed by tourists yet. There are two types of cable car, the Standard Cabin and Glass Cabin in which the only difference between the two is that the latter has a glass bottom which you can see what's below. We bought two two-way standard cabin ticket worth HKD 75 each. We bought a two-way ticket to avoid the long queue in the ticket counter going back to Tung Chung.
My heart pounds fast to the excitement and nervous at the same time as we drew closer to our first ever cable car ride. After around 10-20 minutes of waiting, our turn came. We hopped into the cable car with 3 other tourists, i think they were Germans, im not really sure, the only thing i'm sure of is that they were not speaking in English, haha. It was almost 25 - 30 minute-ride, one of the most exciting and thrilling rides ever. It was kind of a bad weather in HK that day so the wind was slowly swaying the cable car which made me more nervous, haha. But nonetheless the experience was one of a kind. The view from above was extraordinary. It offers a panoramic view of the North Lantau Country Park. I was really amazed as to how they were able to attached those cables from the summit of one mountain to another.
There were still few people when we reached Ngong Ping Village. Different souvenir shops, restaurants and food outlets are available to cater the tourists. There's a baggage counter in case you want to leave your stuff but it costs HK$ 80, a pricey baggage storage fee so we just opted to bring our luggage and pasalubongs with us as we tour around the area. But before starting our tour we decided to have our breakfast first in one of the restaurants.
After enjoying our sumptuous breakfast, we commenced our last but definitely not the least HongKong tour.
Ngong Ping Village is situated on a naturally scenic area in the western part of Latau Island. This 1.5 hectare area hosts some of the tourist attractions in Lantau Island such as Tian Tan Buddha (Big Buddha) and Po Lin Monastery.
We walked past the Twelve Heavenly Generals or Twelve Divine Generals as we make our way to see Big Buddha.
With six Generals lined up on each side of the road, these twelve Generals are known to be the Imperial Heavens protector in Buddhist methodology. They represent different times of the day and correspond to different animals in the Chinese Zodiac.
Tian Tan Buddha commonly known as the Big Buddha is one of the popular attractions in Hong Kong and is one of the five large Buddha statues in China. It is a 34 meters bronze statue located at Ngong Ping Village, Lantau Island. The statue is built on a base platform known as "tian tan" (Altar of Heaven) hence it is called the Tian Tan Buddha. It was constructed in 1990 and was finished on December 29 1993 (source: wikipedia).
One will need to climb 268 steps to reach the base/viewing platform of the Big Buddha. Since we were carrying a quite heavy luggage and pasalubong, we decided not to take the 268 steps challenge and just offered our prayers to Big Buddha from where we were standing.
Next and last on our list was the Po Lin Monastery. It is a Buddhist Monastery located in Ngong Ping Village, Lantau Island. It was founded in 1906 and houses three bronze Buddha statues - representing his past, present and future lives - as well as many other Buddhist scriptures. We just took pictures from the outside of the monastery and didn't bother to go inside as we were carrying many stuff.
There were different praying grounds in the area and we saw some (i think) Chinese folks offering their prayers in a traditional way. There were stalls nearby if you want to buy some incense to make your own offering. There's also a souvenir shop in the area that sells all kind lucky charms.
Overall Ngong Ping Village is worth a visit, though I find the area a bit touristy. We spent almost 4 hours roaming around the village. At around 3:00 PM we went back to Tong Chung MTR station and head straight to the airport for our flight back to Manila. It was indeed an amazing journey.
Other Things To Do in Lantau Island
If you are looking for some hiking and escape from the crowd, try to visit the Wisdom Path. It's a 15-minute walk from the Big Buddha Statue. The path consist of 38 wooden monuments representing infinity and forming a 260-word Buddhist prayer.
If you still have time, you can also go to Tai O Fishing Village. It is the only remaining village with Chinese stilt houses suspended over water. I was actually planning to visit this village when were in Ngong Ping but I wasn't able to research on how to go their and we only had limited time so we weren't able to visit it. Well, at least we still have reasons to back to Lantau Island.
There were different praying grounds in the area and we saw some (i think) Chinese folks offering their prayers in a traditional way. There were stalls nearby if you want to buy some incense to make your own offering. There's also a souvenir shop in the area that sells all kind lucky charms.
Overall Ngong Ping Village is worth a visit, though I find the area a bit touristy. We spent almost 4 hours roaming around the village. At around 3:00 PM we went back to Tong Chung MTR station and head straight to the airport for our flight back to Manila. It was indeed an amazing journey.
Check my facebook page for more pictures (click the photo below)
Other Things To Do in Lantau Island
If you are looking for some hiking and escape from the crowd, try to visit the Wisdom Path. It's a 15-minute walk from the Big Buddha Statue. The path consist of 38 wooden monuments representing infinity and forming a 260-word Buddhist prayer.
If you still have time, you can also go to Tai O Fishing Village. It is the only remaining village with Chinese stilt houses suspended over water. I was actually planning to visit this village when were in Ngong Ping but I wasn't able to research on how to go their and we only had limited time so we weren't able to visit it. Well, at least we still have reasons to back to Lantau Island.
0 comments