King of the Hill on Lantau Island

I was excited by the prospect of many things in Hong Kong. The food, the Star Ferry, the nightly light show, Victoria Peak and of course Ocean Park.

But top of my list for as long as I can remember has been the big seated Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island.

I can pinpoint the first time I became enthralled by the thought of going to visit this attraction. I was writing a Hong Kong destination guide in a job from hell and was asking my colleagues if any of them had ever visited the city in order to collect as much information as I possibly could. One of my colleagues told me he had taken a day trip out to Lantau Island and climbed many steps in order to reach (what was then) the largest seated bronze Buddha in the world. This sparked my interest – I have always been fascinated (I refuse to use the word “obsessed” again as it has come up several times in my last couple of posts and I’m beginning to even worry myself) with the Buddhist culture and have even collected Buddha figurines from my trips to Asia.

Shortly after I first heard about it, my parents visited Hong Kong and came back full of tales of climbing to see the big Buddha and eating a delicious vegetarian meal at the Po Lin Monastery (cooked by the Buddhist monks themselves, no less). That was the icing on the cake. I knew that when, not if, I got to Hong Kong one day, I would make the effort to go and see what everyone was talking about for myself. Heck, maybe the Big Guy would even bring me some much-needed good luck.

Several weeks ago, I finally made it to Hong Kong. Unfortunately for me, though, I had done very little research into how much it actually cost to go and see the Big Guy on the Hill. I expected to hop onto the subway, get off at the Lantau Island stop and there he would be sitting in all his glory, waiting for me like a shining beacon, a short, skippable distance away.

Yeah, it wasn’t quite like that. Once you have taken the lengthy subway ride to Lantau Island (first passing Disneyland Hong Kong – I almost got off and gave up on the Big Guy, shame on me) you then have to pay a hefty sum to ride a cable car to the site of the Tian Tan Buddha and Po Li Monastery. Tickets cost around £10 ($15) each for a return cable car ride in a standard cabin but does not include entrance to any of the other attractions once you get there. Having already gone all that way and queued to pay, I was not going to turn around simply because I thought the tickets were overpriced. I was damn well going to take the cable car and enjoy myself.

And the ride actually was pretty entertaining. It was fun to get a first glimpse of the Big Guy as we rounded what felt like hill number 7 and to laugh maniacally at the people below who had attempted to walk the whole way across the island on foot.

Once there, the Big Guy didn’t let me down. I climbed the 240 steps to see him (which seems to be becoming something of a theme on this round the world trip) and managed to get some amazing views across the island as I did so. I also got to eat a delicious vegetarian meal at Po Lin Monastery, which is always so crowded I am hesitant to believe that the monks actually still cook all the food themselves, but unfortunately I was so hungry I ate all of the food before I had chance to take any photographs of it, so on that front you’ll just have to take my word for it. But I’m good for my word, honest.

Would I visit the Buddha again? Probably not. The whole outing was a four hour round trip simply to have some lunch and take some photographs, mainly because of the amount of time it takes to get across to the actual site and across the city of Hong Kong itself. Am I glad I went? Absolutely. The Big Guy is definitely worth seeing, if only once in your lifetime.