Insider tip - Visit The Tsz Shan Monastery in Hong Kong
A Beautiful Buddhist Monastery but very difficult to visit
Me Jamie, your host, I am English and I have lived in Hong Kong for 53 years - I know the place.
I have personally completed 2,300+ Private Tours and Experiences (over 6,000+ guests) since April 2011 and I am considered one of the finest Private Tour Guides in Asia.
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Insider tip - Visit The Tsz Shan Monastery in Hong Kong
A Beautiful Buddhist Monastery but very difficult to visit
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“The idea for the development of Tsz Shan Monastery germinated with Mr. Li Ka-shing. From a young age, Mr. Li was influenced by his elders, and had developed a life-long affinity with Buddhism. In 1980, Mr. Li established a personal foundation to cultivate a culture of giving, and has since pledged to donate one-third of his personal assets to advance medical research and education, and alleviate poverty. Mr. Li considers the Foundation to be his “third son”. The hardships Mr. Li endured in his early years to transcend his own poverty to build a global business enable him to focus on initiatives that create a lasting positive impact for humanity.
With an enlightened spirit, Mr. Li strives to facilitate real change in the world. Mr. Li’s aim was to build Tsz Shan Monastery as an institute of Buddhist practice and learning, to provide a place for quiet contemplation and purification, and to foster a culture of sharing and giving. Mr. Li believes that everyone has a “bright pearl, long obscured by dust and toil, and when the dust is gone and its light shines forth, a myriad of illuminations blossom across our mountains and rivers.”
Planning and construction of Tsz Shan Monastery began in 2003, and it was completed more than ten years later. Tsz Shan Monastery is a Chinese Buddhist monastery established for the preservation of the inheritance of the Dharma preached by Śākyamuni Buddha. To date, the Foundation has contributed more than HK$3.5 billion to cover the land acquisition and construction costs, as well as the Monastery’s operating expenses. Tsz Shan Monastery has been open to the public since April 2015.”
What an AMAZING place to visit and I got a really nice image of the 76m high Guan Yin Statue., Tai Po in th
A bold statement coming from me but it really is but there are issues which make it impossible to go there on a regular basis (as much as I would love to) and I will list those issues below.
Since it opened 10 years ago in 2015 I have been twice only and once when it was under construction and each time I have come away at being blessed with getting access to such a wonderful facility.
My last visit was May 22nd 2020 with my great friend and fellow private tour guide Amy, owner of Hong Kong Greeters and going with Amy meant going in her car which negated one of the negative aspects of visiting the Tsz Monastery, we spent hours there and it just seemed appropriate that it was wet, drizzly, humid, foggy and hot, it was very moody and atmospheric.
In fact on the 3 times I have been over the years, the weather was cloudy and wet!
So back to the issue of visiting this very compelling religious site.
it is out in the boonies so to speak in the middle of nowhere and a long way from the nearest town Tai Po in the New Territories
public minibuses and buses only get you part of the way there, every route ends with a 10 - 30 minute walk with the last 10 minutes a very steep walk uphill and frankly the 10 minutes uphill hike was more like 20 minutes, it was awful
you can of course opt for a taxi but that can get very expensive but at least it drops you off at the front gate and then there is small matter of getting back to town!
they make it impossible for you to turn up on a whim unannounced, you have to register online prior to visiting, there is a quota and basically it is all but impossible to book at short notice, personally I find this very frustrating but rules are rules and you are name checked at the front entrance, I understand that you can only make a booking for a maximum of 6 people in your group but you can arrange much larger groups of 20 - 50 people, I often wonder what will happen if you only have 8,9 or 10 people in your group?!
You can take photographs of the buildings and statues from the outside but NOT inside the halls, again, rules are rules but at least I got some fabulous images of the art | artifacts on display.
I understand why the pre registration is mandatory even though I do not agree with it, the major Buddhist site to visit in Hong Kong is the Big Buddha and associated Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island, they have a cable car that serves the site as well as buses and taxis and they have to deal with massive crowds on a daily basis which means that at the Big Buddha there is a carnival atmosphere most of the time not helped by the tourist trap Ngong Ping Village that you have to walk through to get from the cable car to the Buddha and Monastery.
When you visit the Tsz Shan Monastery it feels deeply spiritual and you do not have to deal with hordes of camera wielding tourists (which I do not mind at all, I am used to it)
My favourite things to see at the Tsz Shan Monastery are the Guan Yin Statue (76m high and as shown above) and the Buddhist Art Gallery which is full of beautiful Buddhist artifacts and you can view some of these by clicking on the link below.
I am simply in awe of the Art Gallery and I am not really a Museum type person!
The grounds are impeccable and instagram worthy by the way and you can easily spend between 2 - 4 hours there particularly if you can’t pull your eyes away from the art and artifacts on display.
So there you go, if you can deal with all of the hassle of pre registration and actually getting there then this is worth your time
My insider tip.
I would suggest that you contact my great friend Amy of Hong Kong Greeters (see link below) Amy can arrange everything and drive your group (1 - 4 people) in her lovely car, click on the link below for more details, Amy is a wonderful young lady and one of the very best Private Tour Guides in Hong Kong and you will have a fabulous time.
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