Day One in Hong Kong: Visit to the Big Buddha

First of 3 major lifts on the Cable Car

So on our first full day in Hong Kong we went up to the Big Buddha.  It is a hell of a trip.  First, you take a subway to to Tung Chung.  Their subways are really clean and new.  In Hong Kong everything is announced in Chinese then English (a subtle change from when I was first there when it was English then Chinese - but minor).

You could see through the floor of the cable car and others walked a path

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Once at the end of the line, you took a Cable Car (like a gondola, not a San Francisco Cable Car) 4 miles (or 5.7 kilometers) to the "village".  Village is a nice way of saying brand new tourist crapfest.  But a nice crapfest, so there you go.
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You enter through the village, and the Big Buddha sit above it.

Me after most of the climb

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It is 112 feet tall and weights about 280 tons.  It is made of Bronze and is the large Bronze Buddha in the world (so they say).
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You climb up about 300 steps (with about 3,000 other people :-) and the vista just gets more and more impressive.  He sits on a Lotus Flower throne.
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The Lotus throne.

It was a great way to start our trip.  You might also notice that Eddie and I are in shorts and a t-shirt and everyone else is bundled up for winter.  It was between 68 and 72 degrees F, and for them it was freezing.  For us, not so much.

Up close he is spectacular. The markings on his hand symbolize the removal of affliction 

Ass with all Buddha, big earlobes mean great wisdom.
Since I have Dumbo Ears, I tend to agree with that.