The Tian Tan Buddha at Ngong Ping is hard to miss from the air. The seated bronze figure — 34 metres tall, facing north toward China — sits above the Po Lin Monastery at an elevation that puts it permanently in the clouds during much of the year. Getting there is half the experience: the Ngong Ping 360 cable car covers 5.7 kilometres between Tung Chung and Ngong Ping, crossing over the South China Sea and the North Lantau Country Park in 20 to 25 minutes, with views that include the airport and the harbour below. A single trip costs around HK$205 or more depending on cabin type. The hike up takes 4–5 hours from Tung Chung, following the cable car route up the mountain. The Po Lin Monastery's vegetarian restaurant — an art form devoted to producing convincing imitations of meat and fish from soybean products — serves meals from 11 AM to 4:30 PM.

Tai O has been a fishing village for centuries. The houses here stand on stilts over the tidal channels, their wooden frames weathered and close together, narrow walkways connecting them above the water. On weekends it fills with visitors from the city, but the structure of the village — its geography, its pace — resists the pressure to become a theme park. The shops sell dried seafood and local snacks, the smell of salt and brine is constant, and the view from the stilt houses over the delta toward the sea is the same one the fishing families have had for generations. It takes about four hours to walk the coastal path from Tung Chung to Tai O, with limited facilities along the route.

In the waters off Tung Chung, a small population of Chinese White Dolphins — naturally pink, despite the name — lives in the wild. Their numbers are estimated at 100 to 200, and their status is threatened. Boat tours run with Hong Kong Dolphinwatch to observe them. Large sections of Lantau are designated country parks, and motor vehicle traffic in southern Lantau is heavily restricted; driving there requires a Lantau Closed Road Permit issued through a daily balloting system with a limit of 50 permits. This makes southern Lantau unusually quiet for a place so close to a major city. Cyclists find it one of the best places in Hong Kong for the same reason. Sunset Peak, at 869 metres, is Lantau's second-highest point and offers views of the entire island and the southwestern New Territories on clear days.

Everything changed in 1997 when the Lantau Link opened — the road and rail bridge connecting the island to the Kowloon mainland. The airport followed, built on land reclaimed from the sea at Chek Lap Kok. Tung Chung grew from nothing into a town of tens of thousands practically overnight, with high-rise apartments, a large mall called CityGate Outlets, and an MTR station that brought the island within 30 minutes of central Hong Kong. Discovery Bay, a resort-style residential district on the northeastern coast with around 19,000 residents and a significant expatriate population, is connected to Central by ferry in roughly 30 minutes. The southern half of the island is a different world from the northern half, and the ferry from the Outlying Islands pier in Central to Mui Wo — the old, quiet village on the east coast — is still the best way to understand which version of Lantau you are heading toward.

The Lantau Trail divides into stages for those who don't want to attempt the full 70 kilometres at once. Some stages take less than an hour; the full route requires several days. The Discovery Bay to Mui Wo hike, about three hours, passes the Trappist Monastery. The Tung Chung to Mui Wo walk, three to four hours, is rated as an easy climb through countryside. Most routes have no amenities, and hiking between June and October — the hot and humid months — is not recommended, though people do it. The island rewards those willing to slow down: the light on the South China Sea in the late afternoon, the mountain mist that settles over Ngong Ping, the silence on a coastal trail with no cars and no crowds.