209 Thoughts I Had When I Was At Ngong Ping 360 and The Big Buddha

Ngong Ping 360 cable cars. Photo by Tarun Kumaar P on Unsplash. All photos below were taken by me unless otherwise stated

Ngong Ping 360 is a cable car ride that takes you from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping while giving you a 360-degree view of a very long bridge and the Big Buddha. It opened in 2006 and I had been on the cable car once in 2007.

But the most important thing to know about Ngong Ping 360 is this: if you’re a Hong Kong resident, on your birthday, you can get a round-trip Ngong Ping 360 cable car ride ticket for free. This is one of the few birthday discounts in Hong Kong with zero strings attached — you don’t need to bring a friend who has to pay for their ticket; you don’t even need to register beforehand. To get the ticket, all you need to do is go to the cable car terminal, show your HKID card, and if it’s your birthday, you will be given the free ticket.

One of my cousins once did the exceptionally cool thing of getting on a Ngong Ping 360 cable car alone and traveling around the nearby tourist area. She even took the special Crystal cable car cabin, aka a cable car with a glass floor.

She asked a stranger in the cabin to help her take this photo. What a badass picture. Thank you, cousin, for letting me use your photo

I did not plan to take the Crystal or Crystal+ cabin (because it’s not included in the birthday discount), but I was planning to go alone…