Sha Tin, Hong Kong

Bike rental......this way
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The weather has been great this month, high 70s, low 80s. This makes for great weather for getting out and about to explore different parts of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is so diverse. You can be in the center of the the city surrounded by skyscrapers and millions of people, or on the beach swimming within the shark nets, or hiking through the green hills. All of this is a part of Hong Kong. On this day, we decided to travel to Sha Tin in the northern territory of Hong Kong. Sha Tin is the famous location of the 2008 equestrian portion of the olympic races. Getting there involved taking a 30 minute bus and a 30 minute subway train. We wanted to go to Sha Tin because you can rent bikes there. Biking in the area I live in is quite dangerous, very narrow, windy roads (although there are crazy hardcore bikers that do ride these roads and block traffic!). We rented the bikes at Sha Tin Park for $90HK (about $10US). They provide a map and a handy little basket for the front of the bike, but no helmets. There is a nice bike trail that leads you along the Shing Mun River to another town 11 km away called Tai Po. It was a great ride, mostly flat. For the most part, it wasn't too crowded. The beginning of the ride was the only shaky part, riding really close to people who obviously have not been on a bike in a long time. The trail reminded me of parts of the Charles River in Boston with lots of people out enjoying the day and boaters rowing on the river. We rode by a marching band at one point that was entertaining the crowd by playing ABBA's "dancing queen" on brass instruments! The leisurely ride took us about an hour to arrive in Tai Po. When we arrived, we returned the bikes and climbed up the spiral shaped lookout tower to take in the view.

Suzanne and Jane at the rental shop
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We left Tai Po by train and stopped back in Sha Tin to see another popular attraction, the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery. The main monastery there actually holds 12,800 buddha statues, each with different postures. There is a 9 story pagoda near the temple (supposedly, this pagoda was selected as a symbol of Hong Kong and was printed on the HK$100 banknote-but I cannot see a pagoda on the bill!). The monastery includes five temples, four pavilions, one veranda and the one pagoda. The thousands of gold buddhas were quite a sight to see! We climbed many sets of stairs as we wandered through the monastery grounds.

Sha Tin is the famous location of the 2008 equestrian portion of the Olympic races

can you hear it now, "dancing queen, young and sweet...."
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Time to head back to the south side of Hong Kong island by train and bus. It was fun to be on a bike in Hong Kong.