Clifton Family Blog

My friend from college, Heather, came to visit us in Hong Kong!

Hi, Heather!

I don't have all that many pictures, but we had a good time! Nathan and I got to do some of the touristy stuff for the first time along with Heather. Which unfortunately meant that she had to suffer a bit from our lack of experience. So now that Heather has been the first to visit and we've learned from our mistakes, you can all come!

(Sometimes not everyone had a good time.)

One day, we took the (pretty incredible) cable car ride to see Hong Kong's Big Buddha. It's one of the 5 large Buddha statues in China and "was the world's tallest outdoor bronze seated Buddha prior to 2007." Thanks, Wikipedia. Actually, if you do some googling, it's pretty amazing how many large Buddha statues there are, and unfortunate how many people make pilgrimages to them.

So this Buddha has 240 steps. Though we had the new hiking child carrier that Heather brought to us, Josiah wanted to climb the stairs on his own. And somewhere in the middle, he learned to walk up stairs alternating feet instead of using the same foot every time. I don't suppose that's the sort of enlightenment Buddha is supposed to give!

A family picture under Big Buddha is kinda odd to me, but here we are.

Although the Big Buddha is quite commercial and touristy,

it is also a spiritual place for many locals and tourists.

But certainly not a place where they will find spiritual enlightenment.

As is only fitting for Hong Kong, this spiritual touristy attraction came complete with construction and scaffolding.

Please pray for the spiritual journeys of those who visit the Big Buddha.