Ngong Ping. Daily 10am-6pm. Bus #2 from Mui Wo, #21 from Tai O or #23 from Tung Chung. Po Lin Monastery sits at the terminus of the cable-car from Tung Chung, just below Lantau Peak. The complex is much grander than is usual in Hong Kong, and houses a noted group of statues of the Buddha - all three of which are fairly restrained given their setting, at around only three metres high.

There’s nothing at all restrained about the temple itself, though, which is painted and sculpted in gaudy colours. Inside the main courtyard, a huge dining hall (11.30am-5pm; set meals $60-100) is continually awash with diners filling up on vegetarian meals.

All this pales into insignificance besides the gigantic Big Buddha (daily 10am-5.30pm; free), at the top of a flight of steps in front of the monastery. Completed in 1993, the bronze figure seated in a ring of outsized lotus petals is 34m high and weighs 250 tonnes. Climb the steps for supreme views over the surrounding hills and down to the temple complex. The nearby S.G. Davis Youth Hostel, about 500m along the Lantau Peak track, makes a convenient base for a dawn ascent of the peak.