KEY POINTS:
Upon reflection it seems quite appropriate that when I climbed up to the Wisdom Path on Hong Kong's Lantau Island it was collapsing because of wood rot.
It's hard to imagine a more graphic demonstration of the true nature of most human wisdom.
Indeed, the message carved on the huge logs which make up the path, a famous Buddhist prayer called the Heart Sutra, tells of the futility of becoming attached to things because the world is in a process of constant change. Quite so.
Perhaps the enigmatic smile on the face of the giant statue of the Tian Tan Buddha which looks down on Lantau is a sign that the great teacher is well aware of the irony of it all.
But then Lantau is a place of many entertaining contradictions.
It is the largest island in the third most densely populated region in the world - Hong Kong has nearly 6500 people per square kilometre - and yet almost no one lives there.
Most of Lantau is preserved as magnificent wild parkland but it is also home to those ultimate symbols of development, Disneyland, three prisons and a cluster of apartment towers.
And, perhaps most contradictory of all, since Hong Kong came under the control of the godless Communist regime in China 10 years ago, Lantau has become the focus of a tourist development centred on Buddhism.
For all of those reasons, for a tourist in search of a break from Hong Kong's steaming economic pressure cooker, Lantau Island is a great place to go.
You can get there by road, by ferry, on foot via the 70km long Lantau Trail or - as I did - you can glide in comfort in the new Ngong Ping Skyrail cable car.
This provided a fascinating aerial journey from shiny new shopping malls, office blocks and apartment buildings; past the equally modern Hong Kong International Airport; across the brown waters of Tung Chung Bay - where far below I could see crowds of fisherfolk in traditional conical hats walking out into the shallows to harvest shellfish - up the unspoiled hills of Lantau Country Park; over the top of the Lantau Trail with its lines of toiling hikers; past the huge Buddha sitting on its hilltop in the Hong Kong haze and into the strange world of the Ngong Ping Village.
The village epitomises the contradictions which make Lantau so intriguing, offering a peculiar mix of unspoiled wilderness alongside unashamed commercialism, and the solemnity of a traditional Buddhist monastery alongside a multi-media presentation of the life of the Buddha that would make Disney cringe.
Take all but one of the paths from the cable car terminal and you'll find yourself in peaceful woodland areas with glorious views and full of beautiful flowers, butterflies, dragonflies and even - though I didn't see any - rare animals like the Chinese ferret badger, the Eurasian wild pig and the Hong Kong newt.
The exception is the path leading to the village, a newly created tourist attraction, with outlets like Home of Swallows (selling "instant bottled birds nest"), Honeymoon Dessert, Souvenirs To Go, Hoi Tin Tong ("fresh turtle jelly"), Oriental Massage Centre and the Ngong Ping Teahouse ("the world's first interactive multimedia teahouse").
The entertainment includes a show called Walking with Buddha which uses a fairly crude mix of of video, puppetry and special effects to provide an extraordinarily kitsch portrayal of how Siddhartha Gautama gained enlightenment and became the Buddha.
Just to give you an idea, it begins with lights flashing in the plastic leaves of a giant artificial bodhi tree, and ends with the chance to put a wish inscribed on a plastic leaf into a slot in a glowing plastic Buddha and watch it make its way up to his heart. It really is an experience not to be missed.
A rather different Buddhist encounter is provided by the adjacent Po Lin Monastery, founded in 1924 by a small band of monks, and these days a favourite place for prayers, pilgrimages and retreats.
Its various shrines - and especially the hall dedicated to the Buddhist goddess of mercy Kuan Yin - are constantly packed with worshippers burning sticks of incense, praying and seeking advice.
So busy has it become that the monastery has turned its old hall of learning into a popular restaurant, which was was packed with hundreds of holidaymakers enjoying heaped plates of vegetables plus vegetarian shrimp, pork, chicken and shark fin soup for HK$100 ($20).
Looming high on the hill above is the 22m Tian Tan Buddha, built in 1993, promoted as the largest bronze, seated, outdoor statue of Buddha in the world.
It was, according to my guide, given to the monastery by the communist Chinese Government for just $1 on condition it faced Beijing - a rival funding proposal had required it to face Tokyo - and was cast in Nanjing and then shipped to Hong Kong in more than 200 pieces.
Climb the 271 steps to the statue and as well as admiring the giant figure, which has displays about Buddhism and the statue's construction inside its vast body, you can enjoy superb views over the island.
It's a longer but more gentle walk to the hilltop where two years ago the Government also built the Wisdom Path, with the words of the Heart Sutra carved in traditional Chinese characters on 38 big trunks - unfortunately not treated with wood preservative.
This strange place sums up many of the mass of contradictions you find in modern day Hong Kong.
The site is spectacular and the design superb but the words of wisdom were flaking off due to the rot; although the logs were in the process of being replaced there was still a constant stream of pilgrims, mostly Chinese, making the steep climb to see it; and in a small pavilion nearby a monk in grey robes was meditating while the red flag of Communist China drooped in the still air.
CHECKLIST
Getting there
Cathay Pacific has direct flights to Hong Kong twice daily.
Further information
Check with Hong Kong Tourism Board (see website link below) or phone 09 307 2580.
* Jim Eagles went to Hong Kong as guest of Hong Kong Tourism Board and Cathay Pacific. Check with your travel agent or see website link below.
