A Chinese New Year: The Big Buddha

Hong Kong is made up of more than 200 different islands. Most of the population of more than 7 million lives on Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula or in the New Territories. But the largest of Hong Kong's islands is Lantau Island. At just under 60 square miles, it is nearly twice the size of Hong Kong Island but Lantau's population is only about 100,000.

Lantau Island on the left; Hong Kong Island on the right

Other than the occasional trip to the airport, which is situated on Lantau Island, we haven't visited there, so with a warm and sunny Saturday on our hands, we decided to get away from the crowded city and do some exploring.

View of Tung Chung from the cable car

Lantau Island is less than five miles west of Hong Kong Island, and there are a variety of ways to get there, including ferry, water taxi and on the Hong Kong subway system (the "MTR.") We took the MTR across the harbor to Tung Chung, which is the most populated town on the island. Lantau has a very mountainous and heavily forested terrain. The island is even referred to as "the lungs of Hong Kong" because of its forests and relative lack of development. There are trails for hikers, but we opted for a 3.5 mile cable car ride to Ngong Ping plateau.

Stilt Houses in Tai O

Development of the cable car system began in 2004 as part of a tourism project, and it has a colorful history involving everything from typhoon damage to trapped passengers to a criminal indictment of the operator's CEO. But it has run smoothly for the past couple of years; we felt safe and enjoyed the amazing views during the half-hour journey.

At the top of the gondola, we emerged into Ngong Ping village, a somewhat contrived cultural village positioned as the gateway to Tai O village, the Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tan Buddha.

A dried seafood stand in Tai O

A short bus ride took us to Tai O, an old village on the west coast of Lantau centered on fishing and salt production. The town became an entry point for illegals fleeing mainland China during the Chinese civil war (1927-1950). Despite the difficulty of making a living on fishing, people there still live on the water in stilt houses and the town is crowded with dried seafood shops. We wandered through the narrow streets and across the waterways linking them, dodging the locals eager to take us on a boat ride.

After visiting Tai O, we took a short walk from Ngong Ping village up to the Tian Tan Buddha, one of five large Buddha statues in China. It is made of bronze and, at 112 feet, was at one point the tallest seated Buddha statue in the world, having been overtaken by another statue in Jiangsu Province, China. The path leading to the Tian Tan Buddha is flanked by statues of 12 "Divine Generals" that guard the statue. Each symbolizes a different animal from the Chinese Zodiac and is armed with a different weapon.

One of the 12 Divine Generals

There are 268 steps from the main walkway up to the Buddha, and there was no shortage of people making the climb. Tian Tan Buddha was completed in late 1993. Together with the nearby Po Lin Monastery, it is a major center for Buddhism in Hong Kong.

The Po Lin Monastery was founded in 1906. The name means "precious lotus," and the lotus flower symbolizes purity in Buddhism. The monastery is really a collection of elaborately carved buildings surrounded by beautiful and colorful grounds. At the front, there is a courtyard with an area for offering incense, although a guide told us that worshipers are now encouraged to make offerings of flowers instead as an environmentally-friendly alternative to incense. The first building is a smaller temple with statues of deities inside that act as guards which leads to a courtyard featuring the Great Hall or main temple building. At the center of the lavish Great Hall are three golden Buddhas, each with a slightly different pose and facial expression representing the Buddha's past, present and future lives.