The air is heavy with incense smoke, large coils hang from the ceil­ing. One of the old­est tem­ples in Hong Kong. A qui­et, calm atmos­phere, in con­trast to the bus­tle and ritzy streets of Cen­tral Hong Kong. Man Mo Tem­ple on Hol­ly­wood Road is the largest and most famous Man Mo Tem­ple in Hong Kong.

Man Mo Temple

 

Man Mo Tem­ple is ded­i­cat­ed to the God of Lit­er­a­ture (Man) and the God of War (Mo) Lit­er­al­ly trans­lat­ed “Man” means “Civ­il” and “Mo” Means “Mil­i­tary”.

Man Cheong, The God of lit­er­a­ture, clothed in red, car­ries a cal­lig­ra­phy brush while Mo Tai the God of War, dressed in green, holds a sword.

The tem­ple was built in 1847 and in addi­tion to being used as a tem­ple was also a place to set­tle dis­putes amongst the peo­ple dur­ing the British Rule of Hong Kong.

Incense coils and sticks are burned to feed the spir­its and bring good for­tune. It gives the whole place a mys­tic ethe­re­al feel, like some­thing out of a kung fu film

Photography Tips:

1. If you can, go in the late morning/early after­noon on a sun­ny day to see the beams of light in the hazy atmosphere.

2. Turn off your flash! Not only is it not allowed but you will cap­ture the ambiance bet­ter with­out it.

3. A wide-angle lens will work well for the incense burn­ing area. It’s not very large, so to get the incense coils and gold­en caul­drons, shoot wide.

 

4. Get up close and shoot the small­er details. There are many.

Getting to the Man Mo Temple

 

Address: 124–126 Hol­ly­wood Rd, Tai Ping Shan, Cen­tral, Hong Kong
Man Mo Tem­ple entrance fee: Free
Man Mo Tem­ple hours: 8:00 am to 6:00 pm

On the MTR take the She­ung Wan stop, Exit A2. Head up-hill to Hol­ly­wood Road. Take a look at the map here.

 

Mid-Lev­els Escalators

Alter­nate­ly you can take the mid-lev­els esca­la­tors, get­ting off at Hol­ly­wood Road, then fol­low Hol­ly­wood Road to Man Mo Tem­ple. This is an eas­i­er option as you won’t have to walk up the steep hill and you get to ride on the largest out­door esca­la­tor sys­tem in the world! For more infor­ma­tion on the Mid-Lev­els esca­la­tor, check out point 5 of my post here.

 

And final­ly, don’t for­get to stop and appre­ci­ate the entrance as you walk into the temple.

 

 

Click here to check out the Ten Thou­sand Bud­dhas Monastery. It’s my favorite in Hong Kong