If, like most overseas visitors, you arrive in Hong Kong by air, you will already have visited Lantau, as the city's breathtakingly modern international airport stands on reclaimed land just offshore from the Special Administrative Region's biggest island. Most passengers stay only long enough to pick up their bags, then head straight for the train, bus or taxi that takes them along Lantau's north coast and across the Tsing Ma Bridge to Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Yet it's definitely worth setting aside the time for an unhurried return trip.
Lush, green and more than double the size of Hong Kong Island, Lantau has much to offer as an outdoors destination. With high peaks often cloaked in mist, deep valleys and usually deserted sandy beaches, it exemplifies that juxtaposition of intensive urbanisation and unspoilt countryside, which makes Hong Kong so compelling and unique.
Re-crossing the Tsing Ma Bridge, though quick enough, is not the only way to get to Lantau. Most visitors catch a ferry from
Central, which, depending on the type of vessel, takes either 30 minutes or almost an hour. Board the older and slower variety and you may be lucky enough to get an outside seat, from which vantage point you'll get a true sense of what Hong Kong is all about. During the first few minutes of the journey, when the ferry navigates congested Victoria Harbour, you have a prime view of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island's famous skyline, before passing into the outer harbour, where mountainous green islands dot the calm waters of the South China Sea.
Disembarking at Mui Wo (also known as Silvermine Bay, for obvious reasons), you'll find a relaxed haunt of locals and expatriates who appreciate the less frenetic island lifestyle, a hotel beside a sandy beach and, tucked away in the valley behind, a picturesque waterfall. Most visitors, however, head straight for the famous Big Buddha on arrival, reached via a 35-minute bus journey from the ferry pier, though if you have time on your hands you may first prefer to visit some alternative spots on this large, uncrowded island.
The bus winds its way from Mui Wo on the only road that leads along Lantau's southern coast. Climbing wooded hills and then plunging down to skirt beaches and sleepy villages, it also passes herds of wild cattle and water buffalo, living leftovers from the island's agricultural past. For visitors more familiar with Hong Kong's skyscrapers and urban hustle, this green and rural landscape is a truly unexpected surprise.
Some 15 minutes' ride along this picturesque coastal road brings you to Cheung Sha, home to Hong Kong's longest stretch of sand, and a magnet on summer weekends for swimmers and sunbathers. The shorter Cheung Sha Lower Beach is also the location of Chinese cha chaan teng (fast food stores), as well as The Stoep, a South African-cum-Mediterranean restaurant in a superb, beach-front setting that draws fleets of pleasure junks on sunny weekends.
From here, your island exploration continues by bus or taxi - or, if feeling particularly adventurous, you can set out on foot. After all, half of Lantau has been set aside as country park and many visitors come intent on exploring every trail, valley and peak. Indeed, the island regularly hosts the Action SPRINT Adventure Race Series, in which competitors navigate a gruelling nine-kilometre course, scrambling over boulders, jumping off cliffs into rock pools and generally pushing themselves to the limits of endurance.
One look at the names on a Lantau walking map - Hades Stream, Nameless Ridge, One Tree Slope, Peak of Life and Death, all of which are in the vicinity of the picturesque Shek Pik Reservoir - will tell you that hiking here is no lazy stroll in the park. The hills are just as formidable: Lantau Peak, or Fung Wong Shan as it's known in Cantonese, is Hong Kong's second highest mountain at 934 metres.
If this isn't your cup of heung pin (jasmine tea), stick to public transport and head for what is Hong Kong's most westerly settlement, Tai O. This is a splendid place to explore, a fishing village with a character all of its own and a true air of remoteness. Here, in the narrow alleyways noisy with market traders and hawkers, and pungent with the scents of shrimp paste and dried seafood, you step back in time to an earlier Hong Kong. Many houses are perched on stilts above the water, while the disused saltpans beyond the village point to one source of Tai O's former wealth.
Although a fire swept through Tai O in July 2000, claiming many stilt houses, much of the town has since been re-built. And while some may complain that the old rope ferry once pulled across the creek by elderly women has been replaced by a modern footbridge, Tai O still offers a fascinating glimpse into a way of life fast disappearing elsewhere.
Just offshore, Sha Chau and Lung Kwu Chau Marine Park is home to some of Asia's most exceptional wildlife. Unofficially Hong Kong's mascot, dolphins with a distinctive pink complexion (formal name: the Indo-Pacific Hump-backed dolphin) swim freely in their natural habitat. Tours can be easily arranged from either Tai O or in advance at any local travel agency - and dolphin-sightings are said to be almost guaranteed. Other species of wildlife found on Lantau include the ever-present bird of prey, the Black Kite, as well as rare water birds and amphibians.
By now, you're probably keen to visit the island's premier tourist spot. Located high in the hills near the centre of the island at Ngong Ping, Po Lin Monastery and the adjacent statue of the Buddha (or "Tian Tan" in Cantonese) are among the defining images of Hong Kong. The 26-metre high, 202-tonne Buddha is immense and lays claim to the title of "the world's largest, seated, outdoor, bronze Buddha". From ground level, 260 steep steps take you to the figure's base, where you can either wonder at its grandiose scale or admire the surrounding mountainous countryside. Most do both.
The monastery, under the watchful and unceasing gaze of the Buddha, is certainly worth exploring. Included in the price of admission is a vegetarian meal consisting of rice, mushrooms, seasonal vegetables and bean curd, courtesy of the resident monks.
Once again it's decision time. You can either take the No. 2 bus back to Mui Wo, where you can have a snack and a beer while waiting for the ferry to Hong Kong. Or you can walk down into the Tung Chung Valley, past Lantau Peak and into the Lantau North Country Park, towards your final destination, the new town of Tung Chung. As you descend the trail, Hong Kong International Airport swings into view, a reminder that even in Hong Kong's wilder parts, the ultra-modern city is never far away.
Before getting completely embroiled in "civilisation" once again, make sure to visit Po Lam Monastery at Tei Tong Tsai, followed by a 40-minute walk to Lo Hon Temple, built 30 years ago on the site of Lo Hon Cavern, home to a Buddhist ascetic in the 1920s. Another half an hour and you will have reached 19th-century Tung Chung Fort, constructed to protect the district from pirates and to restrict the opium trade. A number of Qing Dynasty cannon still stand on the ramparts, but the only roar to be heard these days is from the jets at the nearby airport.
The downhill walk takes three and a half hours, but a much quicker alternative will soon be available in the form of the MTR Corporation's 5.7-km cableway, linking Tung Chung and Ngong Ping. Expected to open in early 2006, the cable cars will considerably shorten the journey time and effort. According to the MTRC, the cars will be, "a unique and brand new tourism experience for local and overseas visitors, capitalising on the cultural heritage and natural setting of the northern part of Lantau Island". To further enhance visitor's awareness of this "cultural heritage", a themed village is also being built beside the cable-car terminal at Ngong Ping, housing an education centre, a Buddhist museum, a family walking trail, lotus ponds, a teahouse, a thematic restaurant and souvenir shops.
Nearby is the newly opened Heart Sutra Inscription Project. The venture involves a display of an inscription by Professor Jao Tsung-I, a renowned master in Chinese studies, calligraphy and painting. The entire Heart Sutra calligraphy is inscribed on 38 large timber obelisks, highlighting China's long and distinctive heritage.
In distinct counterpoint to Lantau's traditional culture is Tung Chung, a new town built alongside the airport in the mid-1990s. It has several towering residential blocks, a huge shopping arcade and, of course, buses, trains and taxis back to Kowloon and Hong Kong.
A few kilometres along the coast of Lantau at Penny's Bay, one of Asia's largest tourism attractions is scheduled to open on September 12, when Mickey Mouse and friends arrive at the first phase of Hong Kong Disneyland. Visitors will enter through Main Street USA, a replica of small-town America in the early 20th century, and then proceed through three different themed lands: Fantasyland, Tomorrowland and Adventureland.
The resort will feature two hotels. The flagship Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, comprising 400 rooms and designed in grand Victorian style, stands on the shore of the South China Sea and is patterned after the Grand Floridian Beach Resort at Florida's Walt Disney World. Meanwhile, the Hollywood Hotel, with its neo-Art Deco exterior and Mickey Mouse motifs, will serve as a tribute to Hollywood's heyday.
Like everywhere else in Hong Kong, change is coming fast to this large and once-isolated island. Yet Lantau will likely remain a welcome escape from the city for years to come, a mountainous retreat hiding many of Hong Kong's hidden treasures.
Updated 16 February 2006 Copyright
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