For the life of me I can’t work out why Ngong Ping 360 and Big Buddha are so popular. Yes, if you get it on a clear day, being up the top and going on the Ngong Ping Cable Car can be a nice view (but there are nicer in Hong Kong) but those days are few and between and your chances are probably about 1 in 365 of catching it on a truly clear, smog, haze and pollution free day.
I guess if you’ve never been to Asia, seeing the Big Buddha is quite good. I’ve lived in Asia for over 20 years and have seen my fair share of Big Buddha’s so it’s probably not as interesting to me. It’s nice up the top for sure, quite relaxing walking around and there’s a few other things to see and do other than Big Buddha, but it’s really the getting up that puts me off from ever going up here again. The lines for the Ngong Ping 360 and Big Buddha are at best, diabolical.
I remember attempting to go up here a few years back, waiting in line for an hour (in the middle of summer, sweating my nutsack right off), before abandoning. Every time I’m out around that area I can see there’s massive lines to get on. Last time wasn’t too bad, showed up weekday 10 minutes before it opened and waited only 20 minutes. Good luck trying to get up here during a Chinese holiday, if you go up in the afternoon you’ll be waiting well over an hour. I’ve head people who have spent 2 1/2 hrs waiting to get up. If the lines are bad, you can get a bus or taxi, but taxi’s are sometimes few and far between.
You can take what’s called a Crystal Car, or Crystal Bottom car which is more expensive and has a glass bottom. It’s not much quicker (maybe even slower) as there’s less of them, and it’s not that fantastic, so save yourself some change and take the normal one. The ride up is alright, some nice views over the airport. They’ll cram you in with others so pray you don’t get a bunch of screaming yelling tourists.
When you get to the top, you walk through Ngong Ping Village which is alright, lot of shitty souvenir shops and some restaurants (stay away from Subway, it has the worse staff of any Subway I’ve been to!). Walk past the Ngong Ping 360 Village and you’ll see Big Buddha. It’s free, some jokers will ask if you want to buy a lunch at the top, don’t. There’s some steps up here, everybody should be able to make it unless you’re an obese McDonald’s fan. You can go inside the Big Buddha but most people enjoy the views of clouds and smog.
When you get down and turn right, there’s a path that leads to Wisdom Path, this is quite interesting, a series of 38 wooden “things” containing verses from the centuries-old Heart Sutra. It’s about a 10 minute walk. There’s a few other walking paths around if you want to check those out and get some exercise. This path also leads to Lantau Peak, however, you need to be reasonably fit and take lots of water if attempting this in summer. It’s some steep stairs up to the top and not really a casual tourist walk to the top. I hike up Lantau from the other side, you can find out more about that hike here.
Anyway, you walk back to Ngong Ping 360 and head down. For some reason there seems to be much less people going down that up, maybe that’s just because I go down earlier than most. If there are big lines to get down, you can get a taxi or bus down but that’ll take you 30-45 minutes.
In summary, I can’t not recommend Ngong Ping 360, it’s almost a Hong Kong icon, but just prepare yourself for a very long wait to get up. What I’d consider doing is getting a taxi up (buses take ages), and the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car down. That way you don’t have to deal with the lines and you still get to ride on the cable car on the way down. Have some lunch up there, it’s a relaxing atmosphere (although I’m usually up there weekdays when there are way less people) and probably allow for a whole day. You can do Tai O afterwards but it’d be a pretty full on day, especially if you have kids.
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