Overview & fast facts
The hike takes you along Stage 3 of the Lantau Trail, and after about three hours of ascent and descent, you can end your hike at Ngong Ping and the Big Buddha (362 metres) where you can grab a bite to eat and have a look around Ngong Ping with its monastery and the Big Buddha.
Alternatively, you can continue down to Tung Chung along the shady Tei Tong Tsai Country Trail, as we did, passing smaller monasteries, abandoned houses, and rushing streams. Hard-core hikers can continue along any one of the many trails towards Tai O, or down towards Shek Pik Reservoir, and take a bus there.
Transport options from Ngong Ping include buses and taxis to Tung Chung or Mui Wo, where you can get a ferry back to Central, or you can return in style to Tung Chung on the Ngong Ping 360 cable car and wave at all the hikers below as you glide overhead.
Distances & total times:
- Pak Kung Au (322 metres) to Lantau Peak (934 metres): about three kilometres (two hours approx.)
- Pak Kung Au to Ngong Ping and Big Buddha: five kilometres (three hours approx.)
- Pak Kung Au to YMCA Christian College and Tung Chung Road (via Ngong Ping): 10 kilometres (four hours approx.)
Total ascent: 617 metres
Accessibility: It is a steep-ish climb, but we met a Japanese tour group with some very elderly members, as well as a French family with three kids, none of whom could have been older than five years old. Mum’s tip was to bribe the kids with the offer of sweeties at the top; we met them on the way down and the kids certainly seemed happy enough. I guess it works.