The Big Buddha of Hong Kong – finally!

You can get to Hong Kong by car, train, or even by boat. But I have a strong feeling that most foreign (non-Chinese) tourists arrive in Hong Kong by air. And that means you inevitably pass by the Big Buddha statue installed on a hill opposite the airport. You can’t actually see the statue from the airport/road, but knowing it exists doesn’t require visual contact at all :)…

For many years I had a dream that one day, when leaving Hong Kong, I’d finally visit this wonderful sculpture. And every time I’d approach Hong Kong airport I’d look left toward the mountains and… regret not having enough time for a closer look. But I kept on dreaming, and finally, just recently, my dream came true…

The Buddha statue really is impressive in terms of size, but I still went online to find out about the world’s tallest statues. And I was surprised! The Hong Kong Big Buddha doesn’t even make the top-ten biggest Buddha statues! Its height is about 26 meters (34 with the base), while the largest Buddha statue in the world is the “Spring Temple Buddha” in China (Henan province (in central-eastern China; haven’t been yet). That one is a whopping 128 meters tall (208 with pedestal)! Next comes a 115/129-meter Buddha in Myanmar, then a 100/120-meter statue in Japan…

Long story short, the Hong Kong Buddha isn’t in the top-ten largest Buddha statues. But that’s no reason not to climb up and see it! Especially since you can take a cable car! ->

We waited just five minutes for our cable-car ride. Wow, I’m just not used to that: in tourist season in China that never normally happens. Or maybe it’s because of the unusually hot weather?…

Ah, how meditative! Just how I like it! ->

There’s an extra option – you can pick a cabin with fully transparent walls and floor. Guess which one we picked?

However, it turned out not everyone was happy about this (my apologies)!

But even the most nervous among us had gotten used to it by the time of the return trip, and were boldly looking not just out to the sides, but also down at the natural landscapes below us. That gray dot in the center is the shadow of our cabin ->

And here comes Buddha!…

Oh, I forgot to mention. A typhoon was approaching Hong Kong and Macau from the east (which later decided to turn left and hit Hainan). From what I understand, according to local explanations, right before a big typhoon, the weather gets insanely hot. Why and how that happens I don’t know – I’m no meteorologist.

And they were right. It was +35°C. And with the humidity it felt like a Turkish hammam. And with that in mind, we looked up at the 200 steps up to the Buddha – oof!…

But up there, surely there’d be at least a bit of a breeze, right? Off we popped…

Oh, thank goodness: wind! And the views – nice! ->

We Move on further – strictly clockwise // But some forms of Buddhism go the other way – for example, the Bon religion.

And you can actually go inside the statue. Bonus: air-conditioning!

If you look closely to the right side of the previous photo, there’s a clearly visible “no cameras” sign. So there won’t be any photos from inside the structure. This one was taken at the door, where it’s allowed.

We wandered around inside, cooled off – then it was time to head outside again.

The brown roof over there to the right in the previous pic: Buddhist temple – where we were headed next…

Unfortunately it’s also a religious site, so no photography allowed there either. So that’s all for that.

But in decent weather (probably December–February, not in this heat) you can go for a proper walk in all directions. The map says there’s a great many hiking routes here! Take a look for yourself – most of the marked routes are for walking, not driving:

By the way, this isn’t the only spot for long walks. In the eastern part of Hong Kong, they actually hold 100+ kilometer ultramarathons on the tourist trails! But since the heat was just unbearable, running was totally out of the question. The goal was just to walk slowly, not melt along the way, and make it back. In the end, that’s pretty much what we managed.

Hiking around here is really nice. You get great views in all directions, and there are decorations set up along the paths too. For example, the Phoenix:

Very pretty, sure, but the heat put a literal dampener on things: all the possible walks, but too hot to consider them…

Here they’re building this cool meditative object: the infinity symbol (a “figure-8” lying on its side) made of pillars stuck in the ground:

Apparently you’re supposed to walk the whole figure-eight and then you get some degree of enlightenment. Surely it’s not that simple? )…

We didn’t get to try the infinity thing ourselves – unfortunately, it’s still under construction:

Let’s head back to the exit before we melt completely. And over there are air-conditioned shops and the cable car for going down – back we go! The views along the way aren’t bad, either:

Across that bridges-and-tunnel-combo (altogether around 40 kilometers from shore to shore), in about an hour we’ll be leaving Hong Kong and heading to Macau!

Hong Kong airport:

It’s really something to see these large-scale projects from above:

Such a wonderful view immediately reminded me of the “mini-airport” at Hamburg’s “Miniatur Wunderland“.

But we’re getting closer to “the ground” – residential suburbs of Hong Kong are appearing.

Huge buildings. Maybe 50 stories or so, counting the lobby floors! ->

And that’s finally it for Hong Kong, folks. Next up – Macau!…