Ocean Park Hong Kong
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| Ocean Park Hong Kong (香港海洋公園) | |
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  The main entrance of Ocean Park |
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| Location | Wong Chuk Hang and Nam Long Shan, Hong Kong |
| Website | Ocean Park Hong Kong |
| Opened | 10 January 1977 |
| Previous names | Ocean Park |
| Area | 87 hectares (214 acres or 0.336 sq. miles) |
| Rides | 14 total
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Ocean Park Hong Kong (traditional Chinese: 香港海洋公園; simplified Chinese: 香港海洋公园; pinyin: Xiānggǎng Hǎiyáng Gōngyuán; Cantonese Yale: heung1 gong2 hoi2 yeung4 gung1 yuen4) is a theme 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[1], had 4.38 million visitors in the fiscal year 2005/2006.[2] Ocean Park also ranked 17th 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.[3] It covers an area of 870,000 square metres.[4] 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.[4] Besides housing two roller coasters, Ocean Park also features a Giant panda exhibit, a jelly fish and shark 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.[5]
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[edit] 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 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 May 1, 2007. After quarantine, they made their first public appearance in Ocean Park on July 1, 2007.
[edit] Mascots
Ocean Park introduced a sea lion named Whiskers (known as Wai Wai in Chinese) as the major mascot on December 9, 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).
[edit] Attractions
Headlands Rides (山上機動城)
- The Dragon (瘋狂過山車) - 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 (極速之旅) - raises the visitors up and drops them straight down in free fall in 5 seconds.
- Flying Swing (飛天鞦韆)
- Crazy Galleon (沖天搖擺船)
- Ferris Wheel (摩天巨輪)
- Headland Games (熱鬥遊樂園)
Adventure Land (急流天地)
- Mine Train (越礦飛車) - A steel "mine train" roller coaster with 678 metres of track. Open in 2000.
- Raging River (滑浪飛船)
- Ocean Park Escalator (登山電梯) - At 224 m (745ft), it is the second longest outdoor escalator in the world. It is outdoors, but weatherproof.
Marine Land (海洋天地)
- Pacific Pier (太平洋海岸) - California sea lions and different species of seals are displayed
- Atoll Reef (海洋館) - A four-stories aquarium storing more than 2000 fishes in 250 different species
- Shark Aquarium (鯊魚館) - Another aquarium exclusively for 70 sharks in 35 species
- Ocean Theatre (海洋劇場) - Performances by dolphins and sea lions can be watched.
- Ocean Park Tower (海洋摩天塔) - A sort of observation deck that rises high enough for park-goers to survey the South China Sea.
- Sea Jelly Spectacular (水母萬花筒) - Opened in 2006. An aquarium built to display more than 400 jelly fishes.
Lowland Gardens (綠野花園)
- Hong Kong Jockey Club Giant Panda Habitat (香港賽馬會大熊貓園) - Home to four giant pandas, Jia Jia (female) and An An (male) as well as Le Le (male) and Ying Ying (female)
- Sky Fair (七彩升空天地)
- Amazing Amazon (亞馬遜歷險迷程)
- The Amazing Birds Show (雀鳥劇場)
- Caverns of Darkness 3D (3D幻影森林)
- Cable Car (登山纜車) - a gondola lift system that connects the park together.
- Grand Prix (格蘭披治地帶) - a Go Kart ride (extra fee)
Kids' World (兒童王國)
- Dolphin University (海豚學堂)
- Whisker's Theatre (威威劇場)
- Rides for Kids (兒童機動城)
- Tiny Town Games (創意遊樂場)
Bird Paradise (雀鳥天堂)
- The Aviaries (百鳥居)
- Flamingo Pond (紅鸛池)
[edit] 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 will be spent on refurbishing Ocean Park with new rides being installed so that it can compete with Disneyland.
The new Ocean Park's main two areas shall be renamed as The Waterfront (formerly the Lowland) and The Summit (formerly the Headland). The park will be expanded to almost twice its current size and new attractions will be added including 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 there will also be an MTR station, Ocean Park Station, on the South Island Line that will link the current subway system with Ocean Park and the south of Hong Kong Island. This project will therefore attract more visitors. The first attraction to be opened is the Sky Fair with a large balloon for tourists to fly in. Ocean Park then will open the Animal Encounter where wolves, Arctic foxes and all sorts of amphibians will be displayed.
[edit] References
- ^ World's Most Popular Amusement Parks. Forbes.com.
- ^ Annual Report of 2005/2006 (pdf). Ocean Park Hong Kong.
- ^ TEA/ERA Theme Park Attendance Report 2007 - Top 10 Amusement/Theme Park Attraction Chains - World (2007), Park World. Retrieved on March 25, 2008.
- ^ a b General Facts. Ocean Park Hong Kong.
- ^ Hong Kong Ocean Park To Raise Price From October 1, China Hospitality News.
[edit] External links
- Official Websites
- Other Websites
- Satellite view of the Headland of the Ocean Park
- Satellite view of the Ocean Park near entrance at Wong Chuk Hang
- Ocean Park Photo
[edit] Gallery
 Crowd at a dolphin Show |
 Dolphin show in progress |
 The entrance of Sea Jelly Spectacular |
 Zebra Pattern Fish |
 Octopus Jellyfish |
 Display of the Flower Heat Jellyfish |
 Tourists taking pictures |
 A bird's eye view of Ocean Park from the Ocean Park Observatory. |
 spectacular views over Repulse Bay. |
 Main entrance of Ocean Park |
 Another entrance at Tai Shue Wan |
 Sky Fair |
 Grand Prix |
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