Ngong Ping 360
Interesting facts
- To follow feng shui tradition, only 1,688 tickets were sold for the first day of operation in September 2006, a number considered lucky.
- The line runs 109 cabins, each seating ten passengers with standing room for seven more, and can move about 3,500 people an hour in each direction.
- It was the first bicable gondola in Hong Kong: one fixed cable serves as a rail in the sky while a second hauls the cabins, allowing very long spans.
- At both angle stations the cabins detach from the cable to turn the corner, but no passengers get on or off there.
- Until April 2005 the project was known simply as the Tung Chung Cable Car Project, before it was rebranded as Ngong Ping 360.
- Cabins travel at up to six metres per second, covering the 5.7-kilometre route in about 25 minutes.
- Ngong Ping Village at the upper terminal includes a gallery of replica cable cars from countries such as Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Brazil and China.
Why it is worth it
Ngong Ping 360 is a bicable gondola lift on Lantau Island in Hong Kong, 5.7 kilometres long, that climbs from the new town of Tung Chung to the Ngong Ping plateau, home of the Po Lin Monastery and the giant Tian Tan Buddha. Before it opened in September 2006 the only way up was a winding mountain road and a bus. The cable car turned a one-hour drive into a 25-minute ride that is now an attraction in its own right.
The line was designed by the architects Aedas and built by Leitner Ropeways, and it is owned and run by the MTR Corporation, Hong Kong's rail operator. Its route is more ambitious than a simple climb. From the Tung Chung terminal it crosses Tung Chung Bay to an angle station on Chek Lap Kok, the airport island, turns through about 60 degrees and crosses the bay again, then rises over the forested slopes of Lantau North Country Park to a second angle station near Nei Lak Shan before descending to Ngong Ping. There are eight towers in all, five of them inside the country park.
The views change constantly on the way up: aircraft taking off and landing at Hong Kong International Airport, the green ridges and valleys of Lantau, the sea and its islands, and then, as the cabin crests the ridge, the Big Buddha sitting on its hilltop and the roofs of Po Lin Monastery below it. Since 2009 some cabins have had glass floors for a view straight down. The upper terminal opens into Ngong Ping Village, a themed complex built with the line, from which paths lead to the monastery and the Buddha.
Getting there
The lower terminal is next to Tung Chung MTR station, the terminus of the Tung Chung line from central Hong Kong, about 4.9 km from San Tung Chung Hang. Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) is 6.3 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Ngong Ping 360 is a bicable gondola lift on Lantau Island in Hong Kong. Intended to improve tourism to the area, the aerial lift was previously known as Tung Chung Cable Car Project before acquiring the Ngong Ping 360 brand in April 2005. It consists of the Ngong Ping Cable Car, formerly known as the Ngong Ping 360 Skyrail, and the Ngong Ping Village, a retail and entertainment centre adjacent to the cable car's upper station. Ngong Ping 360 connects Tung Chung, on the north coast of Lantau and itself linked to central Hong Kong by the Tung Chung line, with the Ngong Ping area in the hills above. This is home to the Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tan Buddha, both already significant tourist attractions in their own right. Before Ngong Ping 360's opening, the only access was via a mountain road and bus service.
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