As soon as I landed at Hong Kong International airport terminal in the morning, one interesting thing which I noticed through my airplane window was a bi-cable ropeway passing across the scenic lush green mountains adjoining Airport Island. On enquiring further about this, with a local passenger, I came to know that this ropeway leads to one of Hong Kong’s most prominent cultural, heritage and scenic destination known as Lantau Island. After checking-in at my hotel, I decided to explore this place as part of my first day itinerary.
I embarked on this adventurous trip by boarding a Metro train to ‘Ngong Ping Cable Car terminal’, this terminal building is very near to ‘Tung Chung’ MTR station on Hong Kong Island line. Keep Hong Kong’s MTR applet handy for detailed description about various stations and places of interest, it is quite useful for first time visitors like me. It had been a cloudy day since morning, ideal for such kind of nature trips. As soon as I reached the cable car terminal entrance, it started raining heavily with strong winds blowing. I stopped for a while and started viewing the colorful Information kiosks covering various types of guided and self-guided tour options for Lantau Island while rain showers were reaching inside the Cable car complex with strong breeze. I opted for a ‘360 Sky-Land-Sea Day Pass’ guided tour service to explore maximum part of Lantau Island in a day. People with ‘360 holidays’ guided tour sticker gets a privilege of skipping long queue of passengers waiting for cable car ride and get priority access to cable car, thereby saving precious time.
I finally boarded the Cable car and started my 5.7 kms long bi-cable visually spectacular cable car ride. With water droplets dripping on the cabin glass I could gaze at lush green scenery all around, with picturesque views of vast South China Sea and rolling grasslands of North Lantau Island it was enough for my adrenalin rush inspiring me to take out my camera and start capturing some breathtaking 360 degrees unobstructed views of sea and land. Besides these natural scenic views, another interesting view which caught my attention was a bird’s eye view of Hong Kong International Airport and Cargo terminal building with aircraft taking off and landing on parallel runways. How many times do we get to see such complete view of an airport? Rarely. As we were approaching our destination, a large sitting Buddha statue was visible from afar- erected beautifully on mountain top. No doubt this place is full of serenity and calmness.
After 25 minutes of this fun-filled journey I stepped out of the cable car to enter Ngong Ping Village. This culturally rich village based on the Buddhist architectural theme is pebbled with eating, shopping and cultural joints. Ngong Ping Village is designed and organized keeping in view the cultural and spiritual integrity of this area. Bodhi tree near ‘Bodhi Wishing Shrine’ is a place where you can pray to fulfill your wishes or a ‘Walking with Buddha’ journey are some of prominent attractions here. An interesting heritage walk across the entire village and savoring on a local cuisine will make your journey complete. Finally I proceeded towards an assembly point to board an air-conditional deluxe coach to start my journey to further explore Lantau Island and visit Tai O Fishing village and sea cruise to watch Chinese Dolphins.