Hong Kong and Macau_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 14th Edition) - Andrew Stone [68]
On the ground floor there’s a golden likeness of Buddha in a glass case; on the 2nd floor are three larger statues of Lord Gautama. Don’t miss the soaring new extension, a 42m tower with a top storey resembling a huge crystal lotus blossom that glows at night.
This is an active monastery that preserves more of a traditional character than many smaller temples; you’ll see Buddhist nuns in droves wearing brown robes.
To get there take Light Rail line 751 from the Tuen Mun or Town Centre stops to Lam Tei station. The complex is on the opposite side of Castle Peak Rd; cross over the walkway and walk north 150m. Bus 63X, from the Mong Kok MTR station and the Star Ferry terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui, also stops in front of the monastery.
CHING CHUNG TEMPLE Map
2370 8870; Tsing Lun Rd; 7am-6pm; line 505
Ching Chung Koon (Green Pine Temple) is a peaceful Taoist temple complex northwest of Tuen Mun town centre. The main temple – on the left at the far end of the complex past rows of bonsai trees, bamboo and ponds – is dedicated to Lu Sun Young, one of the eight immortals of Taoism who lived in the 8th century. Flanking a statue of him are two of his disciples. Outside the entrance to the main temple are pavilions containing a bell and a drum to call the faithful to pray or to rest. An annual Bonsai Festival is held here April.
Ching Chung Temple is directly opposite the Light Rail station of that name. To reach it from the Tuen Mun or Town Centre stations, catch line 505.
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YUEN LONG
Eating Click here; The Arts Click here
There’s nothing special at Yuen Long ( Map), a large town of more than 500,000 inhabitants, but it’s an important transport hub and a gateway to the Mai Po Marsh (right). To the west of Yuen Long is the Ping Shan Heritage Trail, one of the best spots to spend a tranquil hour or two in the western New Territories.
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MAI PO MARSH
This fragile ecosystem ( Map) abutting Deep Bay, south of the border with the mainland, simply teems with life. It is a protected network of mud flats, gày-wài (shallow shrimp ponds), reed beds and dwarf mangroves, offering a rich habitat of up to 340 species of migratory and resident birds, more than a third of them rarely seen elsewhere in the territory. The area attracts birds in every season but especially winter, when an average of 54,000 migratory waterfowl – including such endangered species as the Dalmatian pelican, black-faced spoonbill, spotted and imperial eagle and black vulture – pass through the marshes. In the centre is the Mai Po Nature Reserve, jointly managed by the World Wide Fund for Nature Hong Kong and the government’s Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department.
Despite its protected status, the marsh’s future is precarious. The water quality in Deep Bay is among the worst in the Hong Kong coastal area. The Environmental Protection Department has found that levels of dissolved oxygen in the water have been declining since 1988. As a result, the numbers of crabs and mudskippers, on which the birds feed in winter, have declined. If the lower links of the food chain are imperilled, the birds that depend on Mai Po as a stopping ground during migration could disappear, taking with them endangered mammals such as the leopard cat and otter.
The culprit is the neighbouring city of Shenzhen in mainland China, which is pumping out a rapidly increasing amount of sewage, about half of which is untreated. Shenzhen is building more sewage-treatment facilities, but as the population of the city expands faster than its infrastructure, it’s a race against time. Meanwhile, the only hope in the short term is that Hong Kong’s increasingly wet summers will flush out and dilute many of the pollutants, helping to raise the number of crabs and mudskippers.
Mai Po Marsh comprises some 1500 hectares of wetlands. The part open to