Lantau Island

Hello, Crafters.

I hope you’re well. Yesterday we started our day with a train ride to Tung Chung, Lantau Island, where we took the cable car to Ngong Ping. It was a 5.7m ride which lasted about twenty-five minutes. At the beginning of the journey up, one of the great views we had was of the airport.

The journey was so breathtaking, we decided to upgrade for the journey back, and travelled in one of the cars that have a glass bottom. This was even more amazing! For the very energetic, you can walk all the way on the purpose built walkway!

The main attraction at the top is the Big Buddha. A close up view is not for the feint-hearted – it’s 250 steps to get to the top! I didn’t realise that the swastika is a Chinese symbol and is depicted on the buddha’s torso! I did take a photograph but it was unsuccessful because the sun was directly behind the buddha.

We visited the Po Lin Monastery, which consisted of several more steps – about fifty! In front of the monastery, there were several visitors who’d bought incense sticks, lit them, and placed then in the designated places.

There were six or seven feral cows wandering around the centre that appeared to accept being near people! I didn’t find out any story behind why, where and when!

Out of all the sights we saw yesterday, the one that fascinated me most is the photograph below. It isn’t very clear because I took the photograph from the cable car, and I’ve had to zoom in quite a way to show you. In the foreground you can see a road that disappears into the sea, and further away towards the left and the other side of the boat, is where the road comes out of the sea! This is the Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macau Bridge which 34 miles long. It’s a bridge-tunnel system consisting of a series of 3 cable-stayed bridges, and an undersea tunnel, plus four artificial islands. The reason why a section goes into the sea is that it was the best way of not interfering with the very busy shipping lane! The Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macau Bridge was opened to the public on 23rd October 2018, and has been designed to last one hundred and twenty years. The toll is HKD15 one way. It’s truly an amazing sight!

That’s it for today. We’re off to visit the Old Town today to see the 800m long combined walkalator and escalator! Hopefully I’ll be back with the details tomorrow! In the meantime, happy crafting.

JanB. xx