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Ocean Park Hong Kong
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Ocean Park Hong Kong is a Recreation Park in the Southern District of Hong Kong Island. The marine-themed amusement park covers the area of Wong Chuk Hang and Nam Long Shan, and is located in Hong Kong. Public can go to Ocean Park by taxi or Citybus.
The park, ranked 7th in 'The World’s Most Popular Amusement Parks’ by Forbes in June 2006, had 4.38 million visitors in the fiscal year 2005/2006. Ocean Park also ranked 16th in the TEA/ERA Theme Park Attendance Report 2007 with approximately 4.9 million visitors, higher than Hong Kong Disneyland at 21st place with 4.1 million visitors.
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Encyclopedia
Ocean Park Hong Kong is a Recreation Park in the Southern District of Hong Kong Island. The marine-themed amusement park covers the area of Wong Chuk Hang and Nam Long Shan, and is located in Hong Kong. Public can go to Ocean Park by taxi or Citybus.
The park, ranked 7th in 'The World’s Most Popular Amusement Parks’ by Forbes in June 2006, had 4.38 million visitors in the fiscal year 2005/2006. Ocean Park also ranked 16th in the TEA/ERA Theme Park Attendance Report 2007 with approximately 4.9 million visitors, higher than Hong Kong Disneyland at 21st place with 4.1 million visitors. It covers an area of 870,000 square metres. The different parts of the park are connected by a gondola lift system (or cable car system), as well as the world's second longest outdoor escalator.
The theme park currently has over 14 rides and other attractions such as aquariums. Besides housing two roller coasters, Ocean Park also features a Giant panda exhibit, a jelly fish and Chinese sturgeon aquarium, as well as a four-story aquarium displaying more than 2000 fish. The official mascot of Ocean Park is "Whiskers"—a waving sealion.
Besides being an amusement park, Ocean Park Hong Kong also operates observatories, well developed laboratories, an education department and a Whales And Dolphins Fund.
Ocean Park Hong Kong was the first institution in the world to have success in artificial insemination of bottle nose dolphins, and developed numerous new breeds of goldfish.
In September 2007, Ocean Park Hong Kong increased its ticket prices by 12% and 14% to take advantage of the Golden Week Holidays.
History
The park was built with donations from the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club (now Hong Kong Jockey Club) and opened on 10 January 1977. The park is operated by Ocean Park Corporation, which is a statutory board. It offers affordable marine animal education and entertainment and is a private organisation for commercial purposes.
In the early operation of the park, the main sources of income for the park were the ticket revenues and the fundings from the Jockey Club. Since the ticket price was low, most of the time Ocean Park was operating under deficit. On 1 July 1987, the government established a 200 million trust from the fundings of Jockey Club, under the Ocean Park Corporation Ordinance (Hong Kong Law Cap. 388). This separated Ocean Park from Jockey Club and became a non-profit organisation; it needs to be responsible for its own income and was allowed to use commercial means to operate the park.
It gradually raised its ticket price and the deficit turned into profit. In 1992, 3 million visitors visited the park. Since 1998, the East Asian financial crisis, aging attractions, and the passing away of the killer whale; the park recorded a deficit for a couple of years. Although it was allowed to host 2 pandas in 1999 (named An An and Jia Jia), the visitor count did not go up and Ocean Park was forced to close its water attractions and the "Old Village" attraction and switched to bring in more rides in an attempt to capture the youth demand. Together with the opening up of mainland visitors under the Individual Visit Scheme, Ocean Park recorded an increase to 4 million visitors in the fiscal year 2004-2005, the highest since the park opened.
In March 2005, Ocean Park revealed its redevelopment plan.(Details are in the section below.)
On 23 November 2006, Ocean Park held a groundbreaking ceremony for its redevelopment. The public believes that the redevelopment is a measure to counter another major theme park Hong Kong Disneyland.
2 more pandas named Le Le and Ying Ying were added to the Ocean Park on 1 May 2007. After quarantine, they made their first public appearance in Ocean Park on 1 July 2007.
Mascots
Ocean Park introduced a sea lion named Whiskers (known as Wai Wai in Chinese) as the major mascot on 9 December 2000. Whiskers is cute, and has a smile on his face and is always waving a warm welcome with its flippers. There are 5 more members of the Ocean Park family: James Fin H2O (a shark); Jewel (a feminine butterfly); Swift (a dolphin); Chief (a parrot); Professor (a turtle).
Attractions
Headlands Rides
- The Dragon - A steel roller coaster with a maximum speed of 77 km/h with 842 metres of track. The ride lasts approximately 2.5 minutes.
- The Abyss Turbo Drop - raises the visitors up and drops them straight down in free fall in 5 seconds.
Adventure Land
- Mine Train - A steel "mine train" roller coaster with 678 metres of track. Open in 2000.
- Ocean Park Escalator - At 224 m (745ft), it is the second longest outdoor escalator in the world. It is outdoors, but weatherproof.
Marine Land
- Pacific Pier - California sea lions and different species of seals are displayed
- Atoll Reef - A four-stories aquarium storing more than 2000 fishes in 250 different species
- Chinese Sturgeon Aquarium - Another aquarium exclusively for about 10 Chinese sturgeons
- Ocean Theatre - Performances by dolphins and sea lions can be watched.
- Ocean Park Tower - A sort of observation deck that rises high enough for park-goers to survey the South China Sea.
- Sea Jelly Spectacular - Opened in 2006. An aquarium built to display more than 400 jelly fishes.
Lowland Gardens
- Hong Kong Jockey Club Giant Panda Habitat (?????????) - Home to four giant pandas, Jia Jia (female) and An An (male) as well as Le Le (male) and Ying Ying (female)
- Caverns of Darkness 3D (3D????)
- Cable Car - a gondola lift system that connects the park together.
Kids' World
Bird Paradise
Giant Pandas
A pair of Giant Pandas, named An Anand Jia Jia, was given by the central government in 1999. To mark the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty, a second couple of bears were given to Hong Kong. The pair of two year-old bears, named Le Le and Ying Ying, arrived in the territory from the China Conservation and Research Center in Wolong, Sichuan in late April 2007. A new compound had been prepared at the park to house them on their arrival.
Chinese sturgeon
To mark China's hosting the Olympic Games, the Chinese Central Government made a gift of five rare Chinese sturgeon, symbolising the five Olympic rings, Ocean Park was the recipient. Two were bred by the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute and three by the Beijing Aquarium. The fish made their debut on 20 June 2008. However the smallest one died the next day, apparently caused by being bitten by a barracuda. Although the advice not to segregate the sturgeon from other fish in the same aquarium came from Chinese experts, the marine park was still criticised for carelessness.
On 14 July 2008, it was announced that Hong Kong would receive another five sturgeon from the National Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Association in time for the 8 August opening ceremony, to complement the four fish already in situ. The park's management decided to evict its sharks from their aquarium in favour of the new arrivals.
On 12 December 2008, a second sturgeon died of suspected maladaptation to change in living environment from fresh water to salt water. A third one died and two nine year old sturgeon were declared ill on 2 January 2009. The autopsy on the dead fish showed a laceration in the head area and a blood clot in the brain. The two sick fish, measuring 2.3m and 1.5m, were returned to the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute for expert care.
Conservation Programs
Ocean Park has established a registered charitable non-governmental organization named, Ocean Park Conservation Foundation Hong Kong (OPCFHK, ??????????). OPCFHK has funded various research projects on dolphins, horseshoe crabs, porpoises, giant pandas, snakes and birds in various Asia countries, including Indonesia, China and Philippines.
Further development
Ocean Park announced a redevelopment master plan to redevelop the park into the world's best marine-based theme park, doubling the amount of attractions and firmly establishing itself as a world-class, must-see destination that will further strengthen Hong Kong as a premier tourist destination. In the next few years HK$5.55 billion (US$705 million) would be spent refurbishing Ocean Park, with new rides being installed so that it can compete with Disneyland.
The new Ocean Park's main two areas would be renamed 'The Waterfront' (formerly the Lowland) and 'The Summit' (formerly the Headland). Under the plan, the park would double in size, and new attractions added, to include a funicular train for transport from The Waterfront to The Summit, 1 new live animal show and an area featuring polar animals.
Ocean Park also announced that an MTR station, Ocean Park Station, was planned for on the South Island Line in the hope that it would bring more visitors. The first attraction to be opened is the Sky Fair with a large balloon for tourists to fly in.
External links
Official Websites
Other Websites
Gallery
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