Lantau Island, Hong Kong
26 December 2004
Following a rather frustratingly gloomy day in the forest reserve of Tai Po Kau (assuaged that evening by Christmas Pudding with good friends Martin and Maya Williams on Cheung Chau) I met up with Martin again on a surprisingly brilliantly sunny day, and went on a ferry from Central to Lantau – HK’s largest island, and because of its comparatively less “birdy” reputation, not one I’d been to before…except of course to the vast new airport, which was built by blowing up one of Lantau’s mountains and shoving the rubble into the sea on top of an important feeding area for the incredible-looking and very rare Chinese Dolphin…
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting Lantau to be anything very special: much of Hong Kong is getting so developed, and if the government had decided to build an international airport here, how could there be much of interest left?
Well, knock me over with a large feather, Lantau is absolutely beautiful – genuinely wild countryside, monasteries, old fishing villages and seriously secluded beaches. HK residents, who are normally oblivious to the noise and pollution of the city, find a sanctuary on Lantau so it almost goes without saying then that tourists love the place. One of HK’s prime attractions – for those prepared to turn their backs on the gaudy and mind-numbingly busy shops anyway – is perched on top of one of Lantau’s hills: the Po Lin monastery and the Tian Tan Buddha Statue, the “largest, outdoor bronze statue with outdoor seating in the world” apparently…
Tian Tan Buddha Statue
The whole of the Po Lin site has somehow remained fairly “undeveloped” and access to the hill its built on is via a convoy of spluttering old buses that wind slowly up the road. In the coach park the theme continues, and a rather charmingly battered old sign points the way to the main attraction: the Tian Tan Buddha Statue.
The Tian Tan Buddha Statue is justifiably world-renowned and very spectacular. Gazing serenely out across the vallies and hills, the statue of the meditating Buddha dominates the area and is – as the tourist books state – very large indeed. The steps up to it are deceptively steep and most tourists (me included) pause halfway up to “take photographs” – ie catch their breath – but the view from the gallery (below) around the statue makes the effort well worthwhile.
It’s worth pointing out that the Po Lin monastery was built by three monks in 1905 looking for tranquility and serenity, and in the evening they would probably still be able to get it: during the day, though, this is a popular and predictably noisy place, and the present incumbents of the monastery were noticeably absent (and who can blame them).
For birders the area around the statue doesn’t look too promising, but close by is an old and long-abandoned tea-plantation with numerous tracks cutting through it: the scrub and trees were pretty quiet to be honest but we did find a superb male Red-flanked Bluetail (which alone would make most non-Asian birders consider the day well spent), both Yellow-browed and Pallas’s Warblers, and a few Olive-backed Pipits trundling along the shaded paths. Not top birding by any means, but we weren’t really here for the birds…
Once back at the statue Martin suggested “going to the beach”. A beach in Hong Kong? Surely not…and if there was one it would be loud and developed, dirty and polluted surely? Ah, but would Martin be one of HK’s top guides if he were to take a mate to a grubby, oil-strewn strip of sand on such a pleasant day? No he wouldn’t…and he is…and the beach isn’t…
Cheung Sha, Lantau Island
Unspoilt with a wide expanse of sand, and views across a sea studded with small islands, Cheung Sha is as unexpected as it is beautiful – a reminder that HK is actually sub-tropical and far more than vehicles, shops, and high-rise buildings. Walking along the sand was almost surreal: a Boxing day stroll in shirt-sleeves on a glorious day in fresh air – in Hong Kong! Amazing…
There are a couple of small beach-front restaurants worth visiting too. Lunch here costs about half what it does on the main islands, and the view is far more pleasant. Why have I never been over before? Well, there are fewer good birds than Mai Po (obviously) or Tai Po Kau, but that’s no reason not to visit – trust me on this…
Having said all this, Lantau is by no means immune to the rapid development that is chewing up the rest of Hong Kong. Not content with destroying the northern side of the island by building the airport there, Lantau’s governors have just had (the no doubt hugely tasteful and entirely appropriate, ha ha) “DisneyLand Hong Kong” built close by to it, have “improved” the access to the Buddha Statue by building a large cable-car station at the bottom of the hill, are planning to desecrate the beautiful Cheung Sha beach by plonking a boardwalk on top of it and – incredibly – an “indoor beach and spa” (I kid you not), throwing up a road bridge to Zhuhai and a container terminal on an artificial island, building a logistics centre, a new town, and shattering what peace remains by shoehorning a motor racing circuit into what’s left.
You have to ask just who will benefit from this destruction? The developers – would it be cynical to suspect that they might? The islanders – hard to see how most of them will, though a few in the areas to be developed might be able to sell their long-term way of life for a short-term financial gain. The environment, the dolphins, the other wildlife – ah well, nothing better for them than construction, noise, pollution, and crowds of people of course…
If you happen to be in Hong Kong and would like to see something that isn’t hanging from a rail with a ’25% OFF’ label stuck to it, then Lantau is well worth a visit – but I’d hurry if I were you, because I have a feeling that the descriptions in this article will be redundant fairly soon…
The ‘slow ferry’ to Lantau
(with Hong Kong Island in the far background)
Wondering if this could really be Hong Kong (I mean where are the shops, eh?). Try this link:
Lantau Island: www.drmartinwilliams.com/lantau.
All photographs © Charlie Moores
