The Big Buddha

Our elder daughter Sonia visited us for a week in mid-March and we showed her many of the places we’ve enjoyed in Hong Kong. We also included new visits to unexplored sites. One such place was a trip to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddha – it is reputed to be the tallest outdoor bronze statue of the Lord Buddha in the world. The serene figure of the Buddha seated on a lotus on the top of Ngong Ping plateau amid spectacular mountain scenery is indeed a wonder to behold. To get up close to the Buddha, visitors have to climb 268 steps, which we did.

On descending, we walked the Wisdom Path to look at the Heart Sutras – centuries old prayers written on tall wooden pillars. These verses are revered by Buddhists as well as Confucians and Taoists. This, in fact, is the more spiritual place. From here, we were able to hike some ways to Mt. Lantau, the highest spot in Hong Kong. It’s pretty steep and hard especially if you do not have a walking stick for support. I’ve bought two since and am now well-equipped for our steeper climbs! Don’t know if I can ever make it to the top though!

Sonia is a wonderful visitor – energetic and yet easy going, eager to see it all and very appreciative. She loved Hong Kong and was even able to squeeze in a quick visit to a local school to see how the education system works here and to take home any good ideas to Phoenix, where she teaches second graders. I guess we can pass from being tourists to tour guides now! We miss Nadia, our younger daughter more than words can say and it would have been wonderful to have had her here too.

Sonia was lucky in the timing of her visit. Two days after she left, a sandstorm that had blanketed Beijing, blew this way and wreaked havoc with pollution levels here. In fact, they went off the charts!!! It was a very foggy day and best spent indoors. The degradation of the environment is a big problem here because of the pollution that comes from the industries in China as well as complacency on the part of local authorities in enacting and demanding higher environmental quality standards to safeguard their citizens’ health. There’s a price to pay for being the factory of the world. Deforestation and over grazing have made sandstorms more common. The Chinese Academy of Sciences estimates that sandstorm occurrence has jumped six-fold in the past half century to two dozen a year! To make matters worse, there’s a severe drought in south western China and its affecting millions of people as well as agriculture and food prices. With the huge population and the increasing unpredictability of weather – longer colder winters and hotter summers, decisive action to arrest and reverse these trends is sorely needed. I read in the papers that Mainland scientists are worried and are warning that “annual temperatures could drop sharply in the next two decades, causing a drastic shift in rain distribution and hitting the agricultural sector hard.” I’ve also read that some expatriates are reluctant to locate here with their families because of the pollution problem.  I’m hoping major action is taken and that it’s not too little too late. I’m being an optimist here. What kind of a world are we leaving to our children?