Tung Chung Cable Car, recently renamed as Ngong Ping 360, would definitely take a spot in tourists?itineraries upon its completion in early 2006. The 5.7 km aerial journey to the Tian Tan Buddha starts at Tung Chung Terminal, runs across Tung Chung Bay to an angle station on Airport Island, then runs up North Lantau Country Park to another angle station near Nei Lak Shan, and finally descends to Ngong Ping Terminal. On 18 June 2005, the CV Division organised a technical visit to this grand tourism development project.

Mr Lobo Lo, the senior inspector of works, first briefed us on the scope of civil works which included the construction of two terminal buildings, eight towers and a theme village at Ngong Ping. In this project, transportation of materials over the hilly terrain was the crux of all site difficulties. To avoid temporary road construction inside the country park, mules and helicopters were employed to carry sand and cement, and concrete, steelwork and E&M equipment, respectively. As a helicopter's carrying capacity was limited to 0.8 tonne (equivalent to 0.3 cu m of concrete), concrete pouring had to be sectioned. Because of the dimensional constraint of the E&M machinery, the Soviet Union military helicopter, with a capacity of 4.5 tonnes, was deployed. Despite this, the heli-trips were still weather-dependent.

Mr Kenny Pang, the Construction Engineer, then explained the cableway system. In contrast to the mono-cable system adopted at Ocean Park, a bi-cable design was chosen, in which the track cable acted as a rail in the sky and the haul cable pulled the cable cars. This had the merits of providing a smooth and comfortable ride for a large number of passengers and allowing long spans between towers, especially the large span of 1.5 km over Tung Chung Bay. 

How can passengers escape from the gondolas in case of a system breakdown? Needless to say, evacuation plans had been part of the holistic planning. Apart from the provision of rescue trails, rescue carriers would be pulled towards the carbins by a back-up winch for the unloading of passengers.

After the presentation, we were led to have a closer view on the cable system inside Tung Chung Terminal. On behalf of the CV Division, I would like to express deep graditude to Mr Lo and Mr Pang from MTRC for their informative presentation.