My daughter and I traveled to Hong Kong over Thanksgiving. See my previous blog posts about this trip: Hong Kong Highlights, Review: China Airlines Business Class Ontario to Taipei to Hong Kong, Review: United Airlines Business Class Hong Kong to San Francisco, Hyatt Regency Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui
If you only have time to do one thing in Hong Kong, I recommend taking the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car to the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery. This was my favorite day of our trip!
Getting There/Tickets
My local friends picked us up from our hotel and drove us to Citygate Outlets, which is attached to the Ngong Ping 360 cable car station. The mall has lots of shops and restaurants, and we enjoyed Dim Sum together before boarding the cable car.
If you’re coming from the airport on a layover, you can take a city bus from the airport to Tung Chung. The cable car station is only a 5-10 minute drive from the airport.
I pre-purchased tickets online from Klook.com for around $42 per person for the Crystal Cabin (glass floor cable car). We could then skip the in-person ticket line and wait in a shorter line to board the cable car.
The Experience
The tickets for the Crystal Cabin were more expensive than the standard cabin, but totally worth it!
It almost looked like we were floating through the air:
Although it was a cloudy day, we still enjoyed the views.
After the 25-minute ride, we arrived at the village. We stopped to take photos at several places along the way to the Big Buddha:
I thought this was a statue of a cow, but I was surprised when it started moving! Just a cow hanging out.
The Big Buddha!
There are 268 steps to the top of the Big Buddha. Thankfully, there were some landings where we could rest before tackling more levels.
Almost there!
There are three internal exhibit floors inside the Big Buddha. There are also other statues at the top:
And the view behind the Big Buddha is gorgeous:
Next, we headed to nearby Po Lin Monastery:
We saw some monks inside. It’s such a beautiful place!
The architecture is stunning:
It was easy to lose track of time, and we spent several hours walking around the village. We realized that it was almost closing time and we had to get in line for the cable car ride back. Since it was close to closing, the line for the cable car was 90 minutes long! Thankfully, the Crystal Cabin line was a bit shorter.
Overall Thoughts
We had a great day riding the cable car and exploring Ngong Ping village. I definitely recommend this to anyone visiting Hong Kong. Splurge on the Crystal Cabin, and buy your tickets in advance.
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Spent 3 days there, with one day dedicated to UNESCO Geopark at the HK East side, including local tour. HK does have a lot to offer for various interests, and a way of mixing natural wonders with the urban highlights.
Found a name of the last place I mentioned – Nan Lian Garden (Tang dynasty style) right across the Chi Lin Nunnery (with inviting traditional wooden architecture and lotus pond!), plus it also has Chinese Timber Architecture Gallery (free). You can easily spend few hours exploring this place, very relaxing.
Ironically it is located across from the Plaza Hollywood shopping mall in Kowloon, and few bus stops from Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple – very busy place with many worshipers coming in and out all day long, this place is based on Chinese animal years with correlated human-sized statures. But it also worse to visit to see local traditions in actions. HK is full of mixing dualities.
Copy you on Big Buddha being one of the main highlights of my HK visit. The scenery is very nice and statures are impressive. It can be crowded, so if someone want a similar place but totally serene and without crowds – visit Tsz Shan Monastery on the Northern part of HK. You’ll most likely need a reservation to get in (free), but the place is gorgeous with architectural styles reminiscent of Japanese and Chinese mix, plus a huge standing Buddha stature in white.
10,000 Buddhas Monastery is another great place to visit, and you must take 1,000+ steps to get there – going along various Buddha statures of all kinds – that is the main reason to see it. On top of the hill there is a small monastery with few really picturesque temples overlooking the hills and city in the distance. It’s another good respite from busy city life.
There is another park complex in the middle of the city (I forgot a name for) that has a stunning golden pavilion and tea house, both overlooking the small lake and surrounded by nice park. Nice scenery in day and night time.
Hope those tips will help future visitors.
Happy travels!!
@Aleks Thanks for sharing your experiences! Sounds like you’ve seen quite a bit in Hong Kong.
I’m glad the clear floor didn’t weird you out. I was worried about that for myself. If I return I’ll bring some bananas for the cows.
I agree that this is a must if not the best for me in Hong Kong. I took public transit and the crystal cable car. I still have a pic of the Buddha as my phone screen picture
@Bill in DC I’m glad you enjoyed it too!
First timers spending 3 days in Hong Kong end of month then Singapore on the way to Bangkok/Thailand. Any other advice on Hong Kong from your experience… will definitely do the cable car.
@jack Sounds like a great trip! Visiting Victoria Harbour is worth a few hours. We saw the Bruce Lee statue, admired the skyline (both day and night) and had afternoon tea on a junk boat. The skyline view from Victoria Peak was also incredible. In addition to Disneyland, we also enjoyed our day at Ocean Park more than we thought we would. Ocean park also has a cable car with stunning views. We didn’t go to 10000 Buddhas monastery, but it looks awesome.
Looks really cool. We’re trying to decide between this and 10000 Buddhas for our trip in June. We only have time for one. One concern is that the Big Buddha would be more travel time to get to. How much time total did you spend at the site?
@Wendy That’s a tough choice! I didn’t go to 10000 Buddhas but it looks stunning. We spent about hours in total from beginning to end on this excursion.
Awesome photos Nancy!!! Congratulations on your amazing trip!!!
@GBSanDiego Thanks!