To get to Lantau Island I travelled over Tsing Ma Bridge - the world's longest road/rail suspension bridge. The bridge was just opened in 2009 and underneath the part where you can see the cars driving there is a train line, and then underneath that there is a tunnel that cars can drive in during rough weather. The bridge is built to withstand winds of more than 300 kms/hr ... i.e. withstand a typhoon.
Lantau Island is a popular destination for those who live on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It's beautifully mountainous and there are several hiking trails and beaches. I went in the South China Sea today and the water temperature was about 28 degrees. Not hard to take at all!
Tai O village is a very traditional fishing village still in operation today - although except for tourism the village would likely be in a huge state of decline.
At the centre of the village are the fisherman's stilt houses, many still with inhabitants.
The majority of the villagers make their living from duck farming, fishing, making shrimp paste and processing salt fish.
Also in Tai O I visited my first Buddhist temple - one erected in the 18th century in honour of Hung Shing, patron of fisherfolk.
After leaving Tai O I went to the Po Lin Monastery - and on a hill above the monastery sits the seated Tian Tan Buddha. It is made of bronze and is about 34 m high. There are 262 steps up to the statue - and it was well worth the climb.
Po Lin Monastery is a huge Buddhist monastery and temple.
I particularly liked the scaffolding at the monastery - they are doing some renovations on one of their buildings:
The trip down from Ngong Ping Plateau (where the monastery and statue are) was by cable car. It was a great ride but unfortunately the weather was rather on the hazy side so unfortunately the view wasn't what you know it could be on a clear day.
Back to Kowloon again and I decided to spend a bit of time in Kowloon Park (which is right beside my hotel). Little did I know, but there is an aviary within the park!
I think Bloor Street to get a lesson or two from Hong Kong about how to do planter boxes along the street:
At the end of the day I headed back down to Victoria Harbour for a look at Hong Kong Island's skyline at night.
So a great day - and very, very different from being in the city! Not much sun today but then again, no rain either, so I'm not complaining.
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