Buddhism is a popular religion in Hong Kong with over 1 million followers and more than 400 temples.

We spent out first day pushing through our jet lag and climbing steps, hundreds of them.

Our first stop was to the see the Tian Tan Buddha (Big Buddha), ascending Mount Lantau via a 24 minute cable car journey.

As you ascend you can see the new airport and also the entrance to the tunnel that leads to Macau.

The statue is very imposing, standing at over 100 feet tall.

The view from the hilltops on Lantau island are very impressive too.

At a lower level sits the Po Lin monastery complex, slightly shrouded by the smoke from smouldering incense sticks.

More Buddha’s awaited us, so we descended Mount Lantau and headed to the metro.

This time instead of one large Buddha, we got to see 10,000 of them, well actually 13,000.

Another 500 life size Buddha’s line the 483 steps up to the monastery, a physical pilgrimage for me at least.

Both sites are well worth a visit and we enjoyed navigating the metro system which was cheap as well as being a great way to avoid the busy streets of Hong Kong.