Genting Highlands and the Chin Swee cave temple
A cable car through cloud forest, cool mountain air, and a Taoist temple with a nine-storey pagoda clinging to the hillside above the clouds.
- Area
- Day trips
- Start from
- Kuala Lumpur
- Distance
- about 60 km northeast
- Time needed
- 1 day
- Best season
- All year; weekdays are quieter
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Transport
- Bus from KL Sentral or TBS, then the Awana SkyWay cable car
- Tickets & rules
- Cable car ticket; temple free, dress modestly
Why go
Genting Highlands is a strange place: a mountain-top resort of hotels, theme parks and a casino, often wrapped in thick fog at about 1,800 metres. I don’t go for the casino. I go for the cable car, the coolness, and the Chin Swee Caves Temple, a peaceful Taoist temple on the mountainside.
The Awana SkyWay cable car rises from the valley over the rainforest canopy, and as it climbs, the air changes from tropical heat to something like a European spring, 15 to 25 degrees. On a clear day the forest stretches green to the horizon; on a misty one you float through clouds.
The temple, its terraces and pagoda seem to hover in the mist. A great white statue of the Buddha looks out over the valley, and a path winds past sculptures depicting the ten courts of hell, a vivid, slightly gruesome lesson in morality.
The story
The resort was the dream of Lim Goh Tong, a businessman who arrived in Malaya from Fujian in 1937 with little money and later built a fortune in construction. In the 1960s he decided to build a hill resort on a forest-covered peak, and the road up the mountain was carved in the following years. Genting opened in 1971.
Chin Swee Caves Temple was built between 1976 and 1994 and is dedicated to Chin Swee, a Song dynasty monk from Fujian, who is said to have brought rain and relief from drought. Lim Goh Tong, who came from the same region, built the temple in his honour. The nine-storey pagoda offers views over the mountain and, on a clear day, the plains towards Kuala Lumpur.
The temple contains statues of the gods and a wishing area where people tie red ribbons. Even when the resort is packed, it remains a quiet place.
_24.jpg){kind=link}
Getting there
Express buses run from KL Sentral, Pasar Rakyat and TBS to the Awana SkyWay station at the foot of the cable car, about an hour. From the top station, Chin Swee is the middle stop on the cable car. A Grab is also possible, about an hour each way.
A suggested plan
- 8:00Bus from KL Sentral to Awana.
- 9:30Ride the SkyWay up through the forest, getting off at the Chin Swee stop.
- 10:00Explore the temple, pagoda and Buddha terrace.
- 12:00Continue to the top for lunch and a walk in the cool air.
- 16:00Return by cable car and bus before the evening traffic.
Where to stay
Most visitors come for the day; there are many big hotels at the top if you want to stay over.
Good to know
- Bring a jacket; it can be cold and damp at the top.
- Weekdays are much quieter than weekends and holidays.
- The cable car can close in storms or for maintenance.
- Combine the temple with a visit to the strawberry farms on the road down.
- The mountain road is winding and foggy; avoid driving in the dark.
- Weekends and holidays bring heavy traffic and long queues.