Here’s something touristy on the blog! After being in Hong Kong nearly five years, I definitely do not function on tourist mode or see this city the dazzled way I did when I first arrived here. Not that that’s a bad thing of course, I’m always happy to hear about friends visiting bustling Hong Kong and telling me how much they enjoyed it. With that said, I still let myself be touristy sometimes and continue to keep exploring. ;)
Back to Ngong Ping, I’ve actually been there twice, much to the amusement of many Hong Kongers I’ve spoken to, who frequently tell me they have never been. One of my favourite things about the trip is getting there actually, which is via cable car aka one of my favourite rides! It’s a 25 minute ride each way (you can choose to buy a single trip or round trip ticket).
On the ride, you can see buildings, the Hong Kong airport, mountains, sea AND a long hiking trail below! Can you spot the people hiking in the photo below? I was quite fascinated!
I wanted to mention two things about the cable cars. Be sure to check out their website before planning your visit because they close the cable cars for maintenance sometimes! The other thing is, I personally much preferred buying a round trip ticket for the cable cars. I bought a single trip ticket during my first visit and took the bus back down and it ended up being a long and bumpy bus ride that gave me a headache. Besides, the evening view on the return trip is a great way to end the visit. :)
By the way, the Chinese New Year decorations spotted here is because I visited Ngong Ping during the CNY period last year. How cute are those sheep? :)
Spot the big Buddha in the distance, up the long flight of stairs! To be honest, I couldn’t really care for the giant Buddha statue, but I loved the views from all the way up there! More on that later, because that was the last spot I visited.
Before that, my sister and I took a walk that passed through lots of greenery to get to a section of Ngong Ping Village called Wisdom Path. It’s situated high up, surrounded by mountains with cold winds blowing around you (I went in the winter). I LOVE it. I think it has something to do with being very familiar with urban city life in Asia, so by default, natural scenery such as mountains completely fascinate me.
Speaking of city life, during my first visit to Ngong Ping, I spotted a couple of cows and one walked right past me and because things like that just do not happen in urban Singapore or Hong Kong, I thought it was the coolest thing! My sister wanted to see one too after I told her about it, but we didn’t manage to see any cows the whole time we were there, and thought we would just have to miss a cow sighting …
… but as we were leaving and heading for the cable cars, this one walked right past us! My sister speed walked after this cow to snap a few iPhone pictures hahaha! It was so tame and casually strolled along, ignoring all the humans staring at it.
Here is the view from the giant Buddha! I was too busy panting from the stairs to take any photos but the stairs seemed like a very popular selfie spot!
And that’s a wrap on my Ngong Ping visit! I hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse of this Hong Kong tourist spot with me. I have a work deadline to tackle but there’s more to come around here! Talk soon. :) (P.S. Say hello over on my Instagram/Facebook/Twitter!)
