Po Lin Monastery and Big (Tian Tan) Buddha

We had arranged to meet David Lee at 10am outside Jordan MTR Station. From there we headed out to Lantau Island where we could catch the cable car Po Lin Monastery and the big Tian Tan Buddha. There are lots of big Buddhas in the world and we have actually seen quite a few of them in Bangkok, Sri Lanka, Nara and India, but this one’s claim to fame is that it’s the biggest bronze, seated, outdoor Buddha in the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian_Tan_Buddha). It took quite a while to get out to Lantau Island and on the journey we were keen to find out whether David L. was happier in Hong Kong than he had been in Japan. Happy is a bit of a strong term, but at least Hong Kong suits David better than Nagoya did. He did seem to enjoy reminding us about all the bad things about Japan, but it fell on deaf ears. I think Japan is a great place to live.

We learned that the cable car had been known to stop mid journey, but we didn’t let that put us off. I have never seen such a long stretch of cable – it went off into the mountainous distance. There were different ticket options available including the “Enlightenment Package”. We just got single tickets and planned to get the bus back, unenlightened.

We could see the Buddha from miles away – a hazy grey shape along with some lovely mountains. People below us were hiking to the monastery – perhaps we’ll do that on our next visit. When we got off the cable car 25 minutes later, we saw a teahouse and museum. A trained tea-maker helped us to choose tea and would show us how to make the perfect cup. I know what you are thinking; easy: kettle, big mug, good strong teabag, splash of milk and 2 sugars. Not here! Lots of warming of tiny cups, washing of leaves, draining and making first and second brews. The result was lovely light, smoky flavoured tea. The tea I chose (the boys let me choose) was reputedly the best green tea in China: the Dragon Well (Pre-Ching Ming) We let David M choose the snacks: honeyed cashew nuts. Funny they didn’t have Hobnobs.














Next we climbed the steps up to the Buddha and did a few laps of the big guy while taking in the views. Feeling nice and enlightened (and hungry) we headed down to the monastery to have a vegetarian lunch cooked by the monks – great vats of barley soup and rice, spring rolls, tofu and bok choy. Yum. This was served with yellow tea which has a characteristic metallic taste (unless it was the taste from the bottom of the kettle….).














We got the bus back to Tung Chung and noticed that the mall next to the MTR station was an outlet mall…… just popped in quickly and managed to find a new pair of fab trainers. Result! We went off for afternoon tea at our hotel and David Lee went home to finish planning his courses for next week.