Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok Airport

Our first day in Hong Kong was finally upon us! Hong Kong’s old airport was in Kai Tak, located alarmingly close to the growing sprawl of residential buildings. Before the airport’s move west in 1998 to Chek Lap Kok, an island part of Hong Kong’s New Territories, Hong Kong residents remember the roar of airplanes seemingly within spitting distance from their home balconies. Now, people flying in to Hong Kong land a bit further from the bustling city centers, but the new HKG’s western location is a perfect starting ground to visit the western parts of Lantau Island.

Novotel Citygate Hotel

After landing in the Hong Kong International Airport in western Hong Kong, we proceeded to check in to our hotel. We’d booked our first night at Novotel Citygate hotel in Tung Chung. This hotel is a quick 10 minute drive from the airport and the hotel offers a free airport shuttle. Our flight landed around dinnertime so we walked around a bit before settling in for the night.

Novotel Citygate in Tung Chung is a great location for the itinerary we planned for the next day, starting with a cable car ride on the Ngong Ping 360 and ending in the fishing village of Tai O. Novotel Citygate is also super close to the airport, making it an easy choice whether you’re starting your Hong Kong adventure on Lantau Island like we chose to do, or if it’s the last part of your trip before flying home. There are a handful of hotels near the airport to choose from, but we selected Novotel Citygate as it’s physically connected to Citygate Outlets, a mall just around the corner from the Ngong Ping 360 cable car station.

Novotel Citygate was also happy to store our large luggage on the day of checkout, all day long. We didn’t pick up our bags until that evening, which freed us to explore Ngong Ping and Tai O for the entire day.

Pro tip: If you need to store luggage somewhere else while visiting Ngong Ping, there are paid luggage storage options at the Citygate Outlets. Alternatively, luggage storage (HK$100 per piece) is also offered at the Tung Chung Cable Car Terminal or in Ngong Ping Village.

Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car

After breakfast at the Novotel Citygate hotel, we strolled around the Citygate Outlets. We enjoyed our first Hong Kong style milk tea of the trip and a hot Horlicks beverage at Tsui Wah.

After a quick 10 minute walk from the Novotel Citygate hotel, we arrived at the Tung Chung Cable Car Terminal to board our Ngong Ping 360 cable car!

You can purchase cable car tickets in advance online, and this is strongly recommended if visiting on holidays or weekends. Our visit fell on a Tuesday, so we took the chance to purchase tickets on site upon arrival. This turned out to be an even better option than booking ahead of time, as the line to buy tickets the day-of was shorter than the line for people with advanced tickets. Another plus of this strategy is that you can plan around the weather. If you have the choice of multiple days within your trip to dedicate to Lantau Island, you’ll want to pick one that’s not too rainy or too hot. Waiting to purchase cable car tickets gives you more flexibility to change days as needed depending on the weather. I’d recommend only doing this on a Monday-Thursday though, as people report super long lines on the weekend.

Various types of cable car tickets are available.

• Standard Cabin – The classic cable car cabin with 360 degree windows but opaque floor, ceiling, and base of the sides
• Crystal Cabin – Similar to the standard cabin but with a glass floor
• Crystal+ – Tempered glass floor-to-ceiling windows, also with a glass floor

There is also a “360 Tai O Pass” option which includes a round trip cable car ride between Tung Chung and Ngong Ping, a round trip bus ride between Tung Chung and Tai O, a boat excursion in Tai O, and a snack voucher. This cost HK$350 per person. As an alternative to save both money and time, I recommend doing this:

• Ride Ngong Ping 360 cable car ride one-way from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping
• Enjoy Ngong Ping
• Catch Bus 21 from Ngong Ping directly to Tai O
• Enjoy Tai O
• Catch Bus 11 from Tai O back to Citygate Outlets (essentially the location of the Tung Chung terminal of the Ngong Ping 360 cable cars)

We booked one way rides on the standard (non-Crystal) cable car from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping, which cost HK$195 per person. The cable car ride was 25 minutes of elevated views overlooking the forested mountains and ocean. The view to the left of the ascending cable cars offers a far away sneak peak of the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery.

Ngong Ping

Ngong Ping Village

The Ngong Ping 360 cable car will drop you off at Ngong Ping Village, which felt very commercialized and touristy. Ngong Ping Village offers lots of souvenir shops and restaurants. It felt a bit like a theme park, even complete with background music.

Big Buddha

Big Buddha rests on a lotus throne atop a 3-story platform. The bronze Big Buddha weighs 250 tons and is 34 meters (111.5 feet) tall. Visitors climb 268 steps to reach the Big Buddha, all the while peering upward at the face of the Buddha at the top of the staircase. At the top of the stairs, six smaller bronze statues, “The Offering of the Six Devas,” offer gifts to the Big Buddha and represent the Six Perfections that are necessary for enlightenment in life. Inside the Big Buddha are exhibition halls and a relic of Gautama Buddha.

Po Lin Monastery

I loved looking at the vibrantly colored building exteriors. Please visit respectfully, as locals and tourists alike come to pray here.

Bus 21: Ngong Ping To Tai O

Once ready to leave Ngong Ping, we joined the line for Bus 21 traveling from Ngong Ping to Tai O. This will prevent you from having to return to Tung Chung (which can be done by cable car, bus, or private taxi) just to depart again to go to Tai O. Bus 21 only comes every hour (on xx:20) so arrive early to stand in line. We barely made it onto the bus and I’m so glad we didn’t need to wait another hour. Bus 21 only takes 12 minutes to get to Tai O!

Tai O Fishing Village

Our first activity in Tai O was a boat ride excursion promising a 20 minute scenic ride and the hope to see Tai O’s famous wild pink dolphins. The excursion doesn’t take much of your day and only cost HK$50 per person. There are many many boat tour providers but it seems they all do the same thing and cost the same. The boat ride began puttering down a scenic canal bordered by houses and restaurant cafes propped up above the water level on stilts. Tai O is home to the Tanka people, a fishing community that built interconnected homes on stilts in the tidal flats. Laundry flapped in the wind, fish and seafood hung to dry in the sunlight, and locals leisurely threw fishing lines into the water. The buildings were sometimes wooden and other times made completely of a silvery sheet metal.

After leaving the residential and commercial area, the boat trip continued out to the open ocean where wild pink dolphins allegedly live. As with any wildlife viewing trip, viewings aren’t guaranteed. Sadly, no pink dolphins were spotted on our short trip but I’ve read a few reviews from others who’ve taken these boat rides and said they saw the dolphins, so I believe they exist!

After our boat ride, we walked around the Tai O commercial area, snacking on local treats and window shopping. Various seafoods and salted egg yolks lay drying in the sun outside local shops. A good mix of tourists and locals going about their business filled the walking streets.

For lunch, we stopped at a restaurant recommended by our morning boat driver. We feasted on steamed fish, stir fried prawns, veggies with dried shrimp and squid, and minced pork with Tai O’s signature salted fish.

We also walked to the western stretch of Tai O to visit Sing Lee, where you can see bricks of shrimp paste drying in aesthetic rows in the sun. We purchased a small jar of shrimp paste to bring home.

Tai O Food Bucket List:

• Fuk Hing Hong for fish balls
• Cheung Choi Kee for husband rolls
• Tai O Bakery for sweet Chinese beignets

Bus 11: Tai O To Tung Chung

Bus 11 takes you back from Tai O to the Citygate Outlet mall in Tung Chung. This ride is longer and takes almost an hour, but the bus comes more frequently every 10-15 minutes. The terminal destination at Citygate Outlets was very convenient, taking us right back to our hotel to pick up our luggage. Again, I recommend staying at Novotel Citygate if you want to visit Ngong Ping and Tai O on the same day!