Taking the Kids: To see the biggest Buddha in the world
(Visit www.DiscoverHongKong.com for free locals-led activities and a terrific app you can download; I also used Lonely Planet's Hong Kong and Macau and Frommer's Hong Kong.)
Tourists also like to visit the islands of Cheung Chau, just a ferry ride away, to see its famous fishing village and Lamma for hiking and seafood with waterfront views. Our visit to the Po Lin Monastery was one of the highlights of our stay in Hong Kong, starting with the 25-minute cable car ride. The base of our car was glass so we had a spectacular view of not only the island but of the South China Sea and of the airplanes lined up at the nearby airport.
Since the monastery was built in 1906 -- some 100 monks still live here hidden from view -- Buddhists have come from all over Asia to pray, though the giant Buddha has only been here since 2001. It took more than a decade to construct.
We walk up 268 steps to get a closer look. Wow! If we'd had more time, we would have climbed to the top of the peak -- the second tallest in Hong Kong.
But we needed plenty of time for lunch. In fact, many come here specifically for the fixed-price vegetarian lunch (less than $15 for the deluxe lunch), which offers hot and sour soup, spring rolls, rice, lemon bean curd called drunken chicken, stir fried veggies. Yum!
Outside people are lighting incense and praying. Donations have poured in from locals to pay for the much grander new monastery now under construction.
Some of them, for a true spiritual experience -- as well as a good workout -- people avoid the cable car and other transportation to hike up a winding trail to the monastery -- more than 3,000 steps -- and much higher than Hong Kong's famous Victoria Peak.
"The idea is it must be hard to get to the monastery," our guide explains. "You have to really want to see the monastery and the Buddha," she says. "It's not supposed to be easy."
Neither is making wishes come true, but it sure is fun trying.
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