There's a lot of activities you can do at Ngong Ping. Firstly, there's the Ngong Ping Village
where you can shop and dine, get to know Siddhartha Gautama, enjoy the monkey tale show and learn more about traditional Chinese tea ceremonies.
Ngong Ping Tea House
the Village
But the most popular attraction on this hill is Tian Tan Buddha. This Big Buddha is the world's tallest outdoor bronze seated Buddha. To reach it, there's 268 steps to climb. *die*
The weather was scorching hot that day, I was sweating like a pig but still wanna stop and unashamedly asked random strangers to help me took some pictures. hahaha...
It is said that on a clear day the Tian Tan Buddha can be seen as far away as Macau.
view from the top
I learnt that Buddha's hand gestures and finger postures symbolizes non-verbal mode of communication. For this Big Buddha, his right hand is raised to remove affliction while his left hand rests on his knee, representing happiness.
There are 6 smaller bronze statues known as the Six Devas around the Big Buddha. Each of them is holding various gifts where they symbolize charity, morality, patience, zeal, meditation and wisdom, the ingredients which are necessary to enter into nirvana.
3 of the 6 Devas
the spectacular mountain scenery of Lantau Island
After that I walked to the Po Lin Monastery
and beyond this to the Wisdom Path.
trail that leads to the Wisdom Path
path to enlightenment
The Wisdom Path is a series of wooden pillars in a figure of eight or you can also say "∞" to symbolize the idea of immeasurable splendor and infinity.
The old heart sutra is engraved on the pillars. People walk between the pillars reading the solemn words and admiring the calligraphy. Unfortunately I didn't understand a single Chinese words, thus I could only take pictures. T_T
They blend well with the beautiful mountainside, don't they?
The hiking trail up to Lantau Peak, the second highest peak in Hong Kong.
Okay, enough of sightseeing. Once you take the cable car to go down you can shop till you drop at Citygate Outlet, located just in front of the MTR station. Coach, Armani Exchange, Burberry, Bally... just to name a few, all offering discounts between 30% to 70%!
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