It’s Chinese New Year’s eve and we’ve got nothing planned to welcome the Year of the Tiger. So, I thought a visit to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery could be a cool thing to do with the kids. Besides, we’ve never been there and according to CNN Travel, the monastery is “one of Hong Kong’s most memorable cultural site”.

We took the MTR to Sha Tin. But before heading to our destination, we had lunch first at the New Town Plaza mall as I knew we were going to face a lot of steps to where we were headed (but obviously, I didn’t disclose that to my kids!).

Once filled up, we walked towards the government offices and followed Google maps. Interestingly, the entrance to the monastery was not very obvious and in fact, quite understated.

As soon as you see the entrance though, a feeling of solemnity envelopes the place. So I had to warn the kids to not run around and be quiet, lest the Buddhas wake up!

The different Buddhas kept Aya and Lukey entertained. They didn’t realize we were sort of hiking up too…

But that didn’t last long. Half way up the monastery, Aya wanted to turn around. With a bit of encouragement and rest, she walked on…

When we reached the main temple, Aya decided to stay put in the area. We looked around, took some snaps, bought some memorabilia, and also whispered a prayer to make sure we get a prosperous and healthy new year. I’m sure one of the ten thousand (actually, they said it’s over 12k buddhas in the temple!) would hear us.

Only Luke and I continued on to the top of the monastery, where a few more Buddhas and statues of goddesses were to be found. Unfortunately, we didn’t see the koi pond that Lukey climbed up for.

But yes, the CNN was right! The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery is indeed a memorable one!

Kung hei fat choi!