Features

China - Lantau - the long and the short of it

by Mike Levy

Lantau Island is known for two big things: the huge gleaming airport that serves Hong Kong and something extremely large: the Tian Tan Buddha whose 34 metre bulk dominates the landscape for miles around. It is an astonishing sight. It was built in 1990 by the Peoples’ Republic Government as a gesture of ‘goodwill’ to the Hong Kong folks who were then still under the British thumb. Could there have been an ulterior motive for such communist largesse? You decide.

The statue sits in a lotus throne at the top of 238 steps – don’t go up at midday in the sticky season! In fact, we didn’t go up at all – preferring to look upwards in a state of permanent agog – and headed instead for the idyllic tea rooms a few minutes walk along a forest trail.

The Buddha is easily reached by local bus from the relaxed little village of Mui Wo which also has two goodies to offer: it is the terminus of the fast boat to the mad (but marvellous) modernity of Central and is minutes away on foot to a beautiful, seemingly endless sandy beach. We stayed at the Silvermine Beach Hotel which is a ten-minute walk from the ferry. Go for a sea-view balcony room. You can hire a bike from any number of traders around the hotel and explore the rest of this, the largest HK island. It takes only a few minutes by bike or foot to feel that you are slap bang in the middle of backwater China. Here locals sit smoking and gossiping outside their tiny little houses drinking jasmine tea from very small cups. Very small and very very big – that’s Lantau.