Big Buddha Hong Kong Entrance Fee: What's Free and What You Pay For

Short answer: there is no Big Buddha Hong Kong entrance fee. The statue is open to the public, and the long flight of stone steps up to it costs nothing. Every price you see attached to the Big Buddha is really the price of something else, usually the cable car ride out to Ngong Ping.

That distinction matters, because most of the pages quoting Big Buddha prices are quoting old cable car fares. Here is what is actually free, what is not, and what the operators charge right now.

So what is the Big Buddha Hong Kong entrance fee?

There isn't one. Po Lin Monastery lists the Tian Tan Big Buddha as open every day including public holidays, 10am to 5:30pm. The monastery grounds below it open earlier, 9am to 6pm, and are also free to walk into. You climb the steps, you stand at the lotus platform, you leave. Nobody sells you a ticket.

The statue is worth the climb on its own terms. The bronze body is 26.4 metres tall, or 34 metres measured from the lotus throne and base, and it took 250 tonnes of bronze and twelve years of work before it was inaugurated in December 1993.

The cable car is the real cost

Ngong Ping 360 runs the 25 minute cable car from Tung Chung, and this is where almost all of the money goes. These are the current fares from the operator's own ticket page:

• Standard cabin, round trip: HK$295 adult, HK$150 child, HK$155 senior
• Standard cabin, single trip: HK$205 adult, HK$100 child, HK$105 senior
• Crystal cabin (glass floor), round trip: HK$365 adult, HK$220 child, HK$235 senior
• One way crystal, one way standard: HK$330 adult, HK$185 child, HK$195 senior
• Crystal+ round trip: HK$545 adult, HK$400 child, HK$405 senior

Two things to know before you book. Infants aged 0 to 2 ride free, child fares cover ages 3 to 11, and under 12s have to be with someone aged 15 or over to board. And the senior fare is the one that catches visitors out: it applies only to Hong Kong residents holding a JoyYou Card or a Hong Kong Senior Citizen Card. If you are 70 and visiting from abroad, you pay the adult fare.

If you have read somewhere that the round trip is HK$270, that page is out of date. So is HK$195 for a one way. Fares went up, and a lot of the travel blogs ranking for this question have not been touched since.

Or skip the cable car: bus 23 costs about HK$20

New Lantao Bus route 23 runs from the Tat Tung Road bus terminus at Tung Chung, which Po Lin Monastery describes as the bus station outside Tung Chung MTR station, straight to the Ngong Ping bus terminus. The operator's fare is HK$20.40 on weekdays and HK$37.00 on Sundays and public holidays. It takes around 45 minutes against the cable car's 25, and the road is a winding one, so bring the constitution for it.

Tap in with an Octopus card and you are done. If you are still working out how that works, our guide to what the Octopus card is and how to use it covers the basics.

Being honest about the trade: for a lot of people the cable car is the attraction, not the transport, and the view over the airport and the hills is the reason to pay. But if the budget is tight, or if you just want to see the Buddha, the bus gets you to exactly the same place for the price of a coffee. A common compromise is cable car up, bus down.

The one thing you do buy at the site

There is a paid interior. Underneath the statue, inside the base platform, there is an exhibition hall and a relic of the Buddha, and getting in is not free. Access is sold through the monastery as an offering or meal ticket rather than as a museum admission, and buying a ticket at the vegetarian kitchen gets you in.

What it costs is genuinely hard to pin down. Po Lin Monastery does not publish the price on its website in English or Chinese, and the figures floating around on travel sites and review pages disagree with each other by a wide margin, because they were noted down in different years. Rather than repeat a number that may be wrong by the time you arrive, ask at the vegetarian kitchen reception or at the entrance to the statue. The kitchen serves 11:30am to 4:30pm, and the meal is a fixed set: soup, a fried dish, a vegetable dish and rice, portioned to the number of people at your table.

The souvenir shop is in the Hall of Merits on the first floor of the Buddha's base platform, if you want something to take home.

Check the closures before you go

Two things are worth checking on the day you travel. Ngong Ping 360 has the cable car closed for scheduled maintenance from 8 to 18 September, with Ngong Ping Village and the indoor attractions staying open. The Buddha and the monastery are not affected, and bus 23 still runs, so the trip is still on if you take the road. The operator also currently lists the Wisdom Path as closed for refurbishment.

Quick answers

Do you need to pay to see the Big Buddha in Hong Kong? No. The statue and the staircase up to it are free, and the monastery grounds are free to enter. You only pay to get to Ngong Ping and to go inside the base of the statue.

Is it free to visit the Big Buddha? Yes, the Buddha itself is. Budget for transport instead: HK$295 for a standard round trip cable car, or HK$20.40 on the weekday bus.

How much is the cable car to the Big Buddha? HK$295 return for an adult in a standard cabin, HK$365 in a crystal cabin with the glass floor. A one way standard ticket is HK$205.

What time does the Big Buddha open? 10am to 5:30pm daily, including public holidays. Po Lin Monastery is open 9am to 6pm.

Is there a dress code for the Big Buddha in Hong Kong? It is a working monastery, so dress respectfully. We cover what is and isn't fine in our guide to what to wear to the Big Buddha.

Is the Big Buddha worth visiting? For most first time visitors, yes, though it is a half day trip rather than a quick stop. We went into that in more detail in our honest take on whether the Big Buddha is worth it.

If you are still deciding how to get out there, our guide to getting to the Big Buddha compares the routes in full.