It’s the Ching Ming Festival in Hong Kong, a holiday when locals visit the graves of ancestors and place flowers or other token offerings at the headstones. It reminds me of All Souls Days in Europe, when tens of thousands of people flock to the cemeteries to pay their respects.
Since I don’t have any dead relatives in Hong Kong, I used the holiday to explore the city. From downtown, I rode the metro to nearby Lantau Island, home to Hong Kong’s international airport, Disneyland, and the Tian Tan Buddha, which is more affectionately referred to as the Big Buddha. “Big” is an understatement. This Buddha is 112 feet tall.
Off we went! For about $12.25 apiece, Howard and I hopped on the Ngong Ping 360 cable car that runs from Tung Chung station, over the harbor, through the mists around Lantau Peak, and to the steps of the Po Lin Monastery and Big Buddha.
The wind rocked our cable car and spats of rain collected on the windows.
Despite the overcast sky — it’s rainy season here, and the sun has yet to break through the clouds in several days — the views were impressive.
Then we arrived at the Big Buddha… which was… big-time underwhelming. The disgustingly large statue was surrounded by trinket shops and overpriced restaurants. The statue felt like a Trojan Horse for capitalism, allowing consumerism to infiltrate and exploit this once-serene, century-old monastery.
It was also a great lesson in how the Chinese government, which is officially both atheist and communist, is quick to capitalize on religion for financial gain. The state was collecting a lot of tax dollars from tourists here.
Rather than return on the cable car, I opted to hike back to the subway via a 4 miles trail over Lantau Peak, which at 3,000 feet is the second highest point in all of Hong Kong and about twice as tall as the tallest building in the city (the 1,588-foot International Commerce Centre, which may only rank as the No. 5 skyscraper worldwide but boasts the No. 1 highest swimming pool and bar). I think the true Buddha would have approved of our decision to be in nature for just a bit longer.
We only got a little bit lost on the wet, winding, unmarked hike back to the metro. Along the way, we learned that it’s against the rules here to electrocute the fish:
