Jessie KohThere are few cities better than Hong Kong if you’re looking for a bustling, lively cosmopolitan city, but even born-and-bred city folks can become overwhelmed by its density and crowds. Perhaps surprisingly, Hong Kong does have plenty to offer nature-wise, with many hiking trails available thanks to their mountainous terrain – a perfect day trip for those looking for a short escape from the hectic city.
If you’re not the most enthused about excessive physical activity (like me…), however, there are definitely options for you too. On my recent trip to Hong Kong, my family and I decided to plan for a day away from the city in Ngong Ping, which lies on Hong Kong’s largest outlying island, Lantau Island. This was largely motivated by Ngong Ping 360, which consists of a cable car ride and a themed Ngong Ping village, and its nearby sites such as the Big Buddha, Po Lin Monastery, and the fishing village of Tai O.
Getting there
While there are a couple of ways to get to Ngong Ping from central Hong Kong, involving ferry and bus rides, we opted for the cable car, which was an attraction in itself. Tung Chung, the starting point of the cable car, has its own MTR station on the Tung Chung (or, to make it easier, the orange) line, which means that it’s easily accessible, as long as you have an Octopus card (their equivalent of Singapore’s EZ-link card) and can find your way around on the MTR.
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Once you get to Tung Chung MTR station, finding the Ngong Ping 360 cable car terminal is a matter of following the signage out of the station (Exit B) and past Citygate Outlets – there will almost certainly be other tourists making their way there too, so there’s little to worry about getting lost.
Here’s the first hot tip for visiting Ngong Ping 360: buy your tickets online, unless you have a penchant for queues and long waiting times. Below is a nice picture of how long the queue was for those purchasing tickets on the spot when I was there – and bear in mind that this was on a Monday morning, so imagine how bad it can get during peak periods!
It’s also advisable to make your way to the cable car terminal at an earlier time (the cable car runs from 10am to 6pm daily), so as to maximise the time you are able to spend in Ngong Ping.
The online booking of tickets can be done on Ngong Ping 360’s website (tickets available two weeks in advance), but there are likely to be other websites selling the tickets as well, sometimes at cheaper prices. We personally used Klook to get cheaper cable car tickets – our crystal cabin round trip cost HK$210 each on Klook, versus HK$255 on the official site – which we found reliable and easy to use, especially with their mobile app.
Our choice of the crystal cabin (the cable car with a glass bottom) was deliberate, in order to avoid long queues, once again. Reviews online suggested that while the standard, non-glass-bottomed cabin was a fair bit cheaper, the queue also tended to be longer; this turned out to be true – there was a far longer, snaking queue for the standard cabin (on the left in the below picture).
Past the queue and onto the cable car (they usually try to fit in about 7–8 people per cabin, so do be prepared to share your cabin with strangers if your group is smaller than that), it’ll be a 25-minute, 5.7km ride to Ngong Ping village, with a stunning bird’s eye view of Lantau Island’s verdant landscape.
Ngong Ping Village
My prior research on Ngong Ping Village suggested that this was an attraction not particularly worth spending time at, and I have to concur with that – it’s a blatant tourist trap, with nothing much but “themed” souvenir shops and a number of restaurants and eateries. To be fair, there are some multimedia shows and entertainment (Stage 360, Walking with Buddha) available at the village, which may very well be amazing, but we chose to skip them and save on the extra ticket costs.
Tai O
With that, we decided to head to Tai O. Although the other attractions such as the Big Buddha are within walking distance of Ngong Ping Village, we felt that it made more sense to visit the further Tai O first to prevent any unforeseeable delays during our journey back to Central Hong Kong, especially considering that the cable car stops running at 6pm (6.30pm on weekends and public holidays).
Take bus 21 (which comes hourly) from the bus terminus right outside of Ngong Ping Village – your Octopus card will come in handy here again – and you’ll be at Tai O in less than 25 minutes.
Tai O is a quaint fishing village and laid back sightseeing spot that is less crowded with tourists (especially on weekdays) than the immediate Ngong Ping Village area, with their main attraction being the stilt houses that the fishermen live in.
As a traditional fishing village, Tai O’s street market is naturally a great place to buy seafood-related specialties and products such as salted fish and shrimp paste – even if you don’t intend to purchase anything, the market is an interesting spot to spend some time walking around in.
Image credit: The Street Project
Street food is also not to be missed here, with various stalls selling BBQ seafood, Chinese pizza, beancurd, egg waffles (the charcoal grilled egg waffle sold by the uncle on Kat Hing Street is particularly famous, and in my opinion, does live up to the hype – fluffy, crispy and sweet, it’s definitely worth queuing for) and more.
Another key attraction at Tai O is the pink dolphins, which can sometimes be spotted in the area. We didn’t try our luck, but plenty of boat tours can be found in Tai O, bringing groups out to the bay in search of these rare dolphins.
Big Buddha
Back at Ngong Ping Village (bus 21 will bring you back the same way), you’ll be just a short distance to the Ngong Ping Piazza and both the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery.
On the cable car ride to Ngong Ping, you would probably already have seen the huge Big Buddha statue sitting on the side of the mountain and here, it’s a mere 268 steps to the top, with many other tourists huffing and puffing their way up together with you. The statue of Big Buddha is quite a formidable and imposing sight, and the view from the top’s not half bad as well.
Po Lin Monastery
Po Lin Monastery is right across the Big Buddha, and some time can be spent admiring the architecture of the structures in this Buddhist complex. Visitors can also join in praying and giving offerings at the temple here, and if it’s to your fancy, the monastery also has a vegetarian kitchen where a multi-course lunch (costing up to HK$138) is served. With a couple of picky eaters in the family, we decided to pass on this, but reviews online indicate that the quality of the food here is good, especially considering the affordable price.
Wisdom Path
For those craving more tranquility (both the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery are rather popular tourist spots), a quiet 15-minute walk away will bring you to the Wisdom Path. 38 wooden columns make up the path, with verses from the Heart Sutra inscribed on them. The relative seclusion of the Wisdom Path means that visitors are able to take in and appreciate the gorgeous surrounding nature undisturbed, something quite rare in a country as densely populated as Hong Kong.
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With that, Ngong Ping should have taken up much of your day, and once you’ve taken the cable car back down to Tung Chung, it can be wrapped up with a visit to Citygate Outlets, the largest outlet mall in Hong Kong. Our day out at Ngong Ping was truly well needed after the intensity of central Hong Kong – for those looking to get away from the city, it’s a locale well worth dedicating a day to.
Also read: Hong Kong Bucket List: 20 Things Every Traveller Must Do
