Exploring Hong Kong’s spectacular Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery

Our first full day plans in Hong Kong were pretty intense.  In hindsight, I do feel a little guilty for our first big, full day being so insane but we had pretty limited time in Hong Kong and there was a lot we hoped to see.  It made more sense to front-load our time in the city rather than taking it easy and hoping we could catch up later on, especially since we knew for sure one of our three full days was going to be spent entirely at Hong Kong Disneyland.  I’ve learned the hard way to never bank on catching up later on — it never happens and you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment.

Anyway, we had a pretty packed itinerary in Hong Kong since we only had two and a half days in the city (plus the additional day at Hong Kong Disneyland) and wanted to see as much as we could.  After our first night where we stumbled around Times Square and Tsim Sha Tsui before finding ourselves at an authentic German bierfest, we were ready to really dive in and woke up early to try to get as much of the following itinerary done:
 

• Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery
• Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian Garden
• Tim Ho Wan dim sum restaurant
• Ladies Market or Temple Street Night Market
• Victoria Peak
• Lan Kwai Fong district

 
Because we stayed down near Times Square on Hong Kong Island, we had to make the near-hour long trek through Hong Kong Island, across Victoria Harbor, and up the other side of the city to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery.  The plan was to get up there as early as we could, spend a couple hours at the Monastery and then head over to the Chi Lin Nunnery.  Essentially, we hoped to get both done before heading to Tim Ho Wan for lunch.  This was overly ambitious (bad) planning, so don’t make the same mistake we did.
 
It’s about a 15-20 minute walk from the Hong Kong MTR station to the base of the mountain and it’s not clear how to make your way to the monastery from the metro.  We were asked by a couple of other English-speaking tourists how to get there when we were leaving the metro station and we offered our best guess but we were also figuring it out as we went.  We relied entirely on Google Maps and the directions at the end of NextStopHongKong’s post about the monastery. We eventually got where we needed to go but it’s probably worth mentioning that we never really saw much in the way of directional signage getting you to temples and monasteries in Hong Kong or Tokyo — these are religious sites first, tourist destinations second — and I assume this is true of most temples, monasteries and spiritual locations in Asia.   Below, the small Pai Tau Village is located next to the MTR’s Sha Tin Station, the metro stop you’ll likely use for the monastery.

 

Eventually, we managed to find the trail to the The Thousand Buddhas Monastery.  We didn’t immediately spot any signage to confirm we were on the right path but signs on trees warning of fake monks and Google Maps was assurance enough that we were on the right path.

 

Eventually, you come across the sign you see below and lo and behold, you’re at the base of the steps that lead up the mountain to the monastery.   The steps — all 400+ of them — weren’t as steep as I might’ve expected after reading guides before the trip warning that the climb was strenuous.  Luckily, the weather when we visited was very favorable — neither hot nor cold and maybe just a bit muggy.  It was a beautiful day and we really lucked out — I know my opinion of the climb up would be less favorable if we visited mid-summer and it was peak heat and humidity, or worse, if it were raining.

 

We never spotted any fake monks, nor did we see any real monks.  Actually, the monastery name is a misnomer, and there are no monks that actually reside at the complex.

 

All of the statues leading up to the temple complex are expressive and unique.  These statues alone are worth visiting for — with the temple, pagoda, halls, and views at the top of the climb making it all a pretty worthwhile experience.

 

Nick, taking a break on a landing, waiting for me to catch up after stopping for the millionth time to take pictures.

 

Looking back down the hill…

 

A look back down the hill just before you reach the top where the temple and pagoda reside.

 

 

Nick at the gate to the temple complex.

At the top, the main plaza is a large paved promenade with various features, including the main Ten Thousand Buddhas temple, the Man Fat Sze pagoda, a vegetarian cafe, and burial chambers.

The mountains behind the temple are a gorgeous backdrop to the temple complex, and the interior of the temple itself is breathtaking.  The walls are lined with over 10,000 smaller buddha statues and it’s really stunning, but alas, no photos are allowed inside.  So really, if you want to see the 10,000 buddhas that reside in the temple and give the monastery its name, you have to visit for yourself.  The statues along the stairs up to the monastery aren’t even included in that 10,000 count — actually, it’s estimated that, including the statues in the temple and those along the steps and throughout the complex, there are actually close to 13,000 buddha statues throughout.

 

Incense are available to light outside the temple and pagoda for a small donation.

 

 

 

 

 

Beyond the main complex, you can climb another few dozen steps lined with statues of female buddhas before reaching the second level of the complex which features four halls dedicated to buddhist and tao deities.

Photography inside the halls and in some other areas of the upper level is restricted.

 

The views from the second level are really beautiful.

 

From the upper level, the nine-story Man Fat Sze pagoda from the lower level of the complex can be seen through the trees.

 

 

The upper level ends at a waterfall that cascades down the mountainside, with several golden buddhas frolicking on the hillside.

 

 

At the top, a spectacular, gleaming white statue of Kwun Yam, the goddess of mercy, watches over Hong Kong.

 

At this point, from the top of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery, we realized we’d spent twice as long as we had planned at the monastery and it was already early afternoon.   We had a group huddle to decide what to do next — we were all hungry and agreed we might’ve overloaded the itinerary for the day.  In addition to the time it took to find the monastery and make our way up the 400 stairs, we all had found ourselves to be far more enamored with the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery than we had anticipated and spent a lot longer exploring than any of us had thought we would.  We decided to cut the Chi Lin Nunnery entirely from our plans and move Tim Ho Wan and the Ladies Market to later in our Hong Kong stay and instead make our way to the nearby New Town Plaza, one of Hong Kong’s biggest malls, to find some lunch before making our way back across the city and Victoria Harbor so we could make our 5 p.m. sunset reservation for the Victoria Peak Tram.

 

New Town Plaza was a solid choice for food — the food court had a lot of options (mostly table service), all of which seemed pretty viable.  Since we missed out on Tim Ho Wan for our lunch plans, we decided to get dim sum anyway at Pearl Delights in the mall.  We struggled with service at the restaurant and weren’t sure if it was just spotty or if we just didn’t know how to properly maneuver a sit down dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong — it was our first full day in the city, after all, and we were also starving and in a bit of a hurry.  Anyway, the food was great and I devoured my shumai, har gow, and pork bowl with determination — I love dim sum and eat it way too much here at home but my goodness, it’s (of course) so much better in Hong Kong.

After lunch, we went to look for Snoopy’s World, which we thought was a store in the mall but later discovered was a weird mini theme park built onto the mall, themed to the Peanuts characters.  We already had the Peanuts Cafe and Snoopy Museum on our Tokyo itinerary, so it was a happy accident to find something silly and Peanuts-releated in Hong Kong.

I can’t recommend going out of your way to see Snoopy’s World when you go to Hong Kong.  It’s not a great theme park by any means — it’s tiny and not in the best condition and it kind of comes off as a repurposed kids play area that, at some point, got redressed with Peanuts characters.  It’s cute and silly and weird but it’s by no means something to seek out.  But, you know, if you happen to find yourself at this mall looking for food or shopping adventures after visiting the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery like we did, then check it out for its weirdness.

There’s a cute Beagle Scout-themed boat flume ride that looked painfully slow and thrill-free.  I’m sure the local kids enjoy it, though.

 

The back half of Snoopy’s World had random facades and props that seemed leftover from whatever this space was before it became Snoopy’s World.   So, when I saw the giant wedding rings behind the weird chapel (where you can apparently have your wedding with Snoopy as a witness!), I made the newlyweds pose for a picture.  Suckers.

After Snoopy’s World we raced back to the metro and made the journey back across the the city and harbor.  We were heading down to Central, where we’d meet outside of the MTR station with our Klook guide for our Victoria Peak Tram experience.   I’ll give you a full rundown of our Victora Peak experience in our next post — if our time at Ten Thousand Buddha’s Monastery was a peaceful introduction to the beauty of Hong Kong, then Victoria Peak would prove to be the total opposite side of the coin.
 

Klook.com


 

TEN THOUSAND BUDDHAS MONASTERY

Lots 358-359
Sha Tin, Hong Kong, China
Open daily, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Free admission

SNOOPY’S WORLD

at New Town Plaza
Sha Tin Centre Street
Sha Tin, Hong Kong, China
newtownplaza.com.hk/snoopys-world
Open daily, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Free admission, attractions vary