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Fitting Big Buddah into a 1 day HK trip

Fitting Big Buddah into a 1 day HK trip

Old Sep 13, 2014, 5:17 am
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Fitting Big Buddah into a 1 day HK trip

I am doing an extended 25 hour layover in HK in November. First time visit and trying to squeeze in as much as we can. My only hope of fitting the Big Buddah in would be on the way into Kowloon after arriving at HKG at 9am. What is the best option for a very quick stop?(I want the landmark shot) The cable car? I saw in an older thread that there are outlets nearby to store bags. Are there any new options?
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Old Sep 13, 2014, 7:20 am
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Arriving that early makes it easy if you have the wakefulness to do it right away upon arrival (which I'd recommend to avoid the crowds). We took the bus up and the cable car down. The bus(es) leave from the little district adjacent to the airport (take a cab or other local bus which someone can refer you to at the airport), then the bus to the top from the small bus terminal near the cable car bottom station...within about a hundred yards of each other. The bus goes around the back side of the island on the way up, past a few little towns and views of the other undeveloped harbor ... a bouncy interesting ride of maybe 30 minutes. First bus goes up at about 7:30 -- cable cars start coming down at around 9. Beyond the Buddha and through the woods a bit there is an interesting static artistic display of huge carved trees mounted along a path ... very lovely if there's some leftover morning fog. The touristy little commercial zone heading over to get the cable car isn't much to recommend.

Last edited by Winston3-4; Sep 13, 2014 at 7:22 am Reason: misspell
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Old Sep 14, 2014, 2:11 am
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Cable car starts at 10am on weekdays and 9am on weekends and holidays. If your flight arrive at 9, by the time you get to the cable car terminal, it should be running already. Take a blue taxi from the airport, or the S1 bus to get to the cable car terminal. It'll be faster than taking the No 23 bus all the way from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping, unless you desire the equally scenic bus trip.

Last edited by rkkwan; Sep 14, 2014 at 8:35 pm
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Old Sep 14, 2014, 5:05 am
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Thanks, coming in on a Thursday at 9:25 am so the timing works out. What about bag storage? That will be an issue or can we just bring them with us?
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Old Sep 14, 2014, 7:26 am
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Originally Posted by rkkwan
No 21 bus all the way from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping
Just for the avoidance of confusion, it's the #23 bus that goes from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping.
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Old Sep 14, 2014, 11:53 am
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Great posts! I'm going to Hong Kong in November, arriving at 6am and am hoping on the Buddha from the airport. I'm thinking that I can get a locker for my suitcase, then come back for it. My hotel is in Tsim Sha Tsui so I can catch a cab after the Buddha. Sound reasonable?

Thanks
Sharon
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Old Sep 14, 2014, 2:30 pm
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Originally Posted by rkkwan
Cable car starts at 10am on weekdays and 9am on weekends and holidays. If your flight arrive at 9, by the time you get to the cable car terminal, it should be running already. Take a blue taxi from the airport, or the S1 bus to get to the cable car terminal. It'll be faster than taking the No 21 bus all the way from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping, unless you desire the equally scenic bus trip.
Is it really that late? I do hikes from Tung Chung MTR via the rescue trail quite regularly around 7 am and I see the cabel car up running by 8.
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Old Sep 14, 2014, 6:55 pm
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Thanks again to everyone. So I see that because of the bags and wanting to do this as quickly as possible we can leave the bags at Tung Chang Cable Car Terminal. Upon our return we are headed to the Sheraton. Will taxi or train be our quickest option?
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Old Sep 14, 2014, 8:36 pm
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Originally Posted by christep
Just for the avoidance of confusion, it's the #23 bus that goes from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping.
Thanks. Corrected.
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Old Sep 14, 2014, 8:38 pm
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Originally Posted by HKtraveller
Is it really that late? I do hikes from Tung Chung MTR via the rescue trail quite regularly around 7 am and I see the cabel car up running by 8.
It's indeed that late. They're likely doing service runs or other trials in the morning.
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Old Sep 14, 2014, 8:41 pm
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Originally Posted by ghia74
Thanks again to everyone. So I see that because of the bags and wanting to do this as quickly as possible we can leave the bags at Tung Chang Cable Car Terminal. Upon our return we are headed to the Sheraton. Will taxi or train be our quickest option?
If you take the MTR, you either still need a taxi transfer from Kowloon Station, or transfers at Lai King onto the crowded Tsuen Wan Line with another 9 stations to go.

But for taxi directly, I am not sure if there are red taxis waiting near the cable car station.
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Old Sep 14, 2014, 10:42 pm
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Originally Posted by ghia74
I am doing an extended 25 hour layover in HK in November. First time visit and trying to squeeze in as much as we can. My only hope of fitting the Big Buddah in would be on the way into Kowloon after arriving at HKG at 9am. What is the best option for a very quick stop?(I want the landmark shot) The cable car? I saw in an older thread that there are outlets nearby to store bags. Are there any new options?
Term 2 at HKIA has a baggage storage facility, open from 0530-0100
charges $12 HKD per hour or $140 HKD per day
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Old Sep 15, 2014, 10:14 pm
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Originally Posted by moyeung
Term 2 at HKIA has a baggage storage facility, open from 0530-0100
charges $12 HKD per hour or $140 HKD per day
I can recommend as have used it several time when spending the day in Hong Kong before an onward journey.
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