Ocean Park, Hong Kong:

Ocean Park Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港海洋公園), commonly known as Ocean Park, is a marine-themed amusement park situated in Wong Chuk Hang and Nam Long Shan in the Southern District of Hong Kong. Founded in 1977 by the then Governor of Hong Kong Sir Murray MacLehose, Ocean Park has now grown to about 35 attractions and rides. The park has won several awards, including The World's Seventh Most Popular Amusement Park and 33rd Most Visited Tourist Attractions in the World by Forbes.^[1]^[2]^[3]

In fiscal year 2007/2008, Ocean Park received 5.03 million visitors awarding it the position of the world's number 15 theme park by annual attendance.^[4] This figure is well ahead than that of rival Hong Kong Disneyland's 4.5 million visitors. Covering an area of 870,000 square metres of land, the park is separated by a large mountain into two areas, The Summit (Headland) and The Waterfront (Lowland) respectively. The areas can be reached by a 1.5 km long cable car system, a shuttle bus, or the Ocean Express (train). As the Headland comprises several hills, visitors can also opt to take the world's second longest outdoor escalator.^[3]

The theme park currently has 35 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 2,000 fish.

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 bottlenose 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]

In July 2009, Ocean Park Hong Kong announced that they would increase their ticket prices by 20% and 25% to pay a loan.

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 Hoi Wai meant that 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 demand from the youth market. 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's opening.

Attractions

Animals

Giant Pandas

A pair of Giant Pandas, a male named An An (安安) and a female called Jia Jia (佳佳), were given to Ocean Park by the central government in 1999. To mark the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty, two more pandas were given to Hong Kong. The pair of two year-old bears, a male called Le Le (樂樂) and a female named Ying Ying (盈盈), arrived at Ocean Park from the China Conservation and Research Center in Wolong in Sichuan province on 1 May 2007. After quarantine, they made their first public appearance in Ocean Park on 1 July 2007.^[6] A new compound was 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, with Ocean Park as 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.^[7] However the smallest one died the next day, apparently 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.^[8]

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.^[9]

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.^[10]

Dolphins

In July 2009 Domino and Domisa, two dolphins from Bayworld in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, arrived at Ocean Park. The dolphins, a father and daughter pair, were separated in order to ensure that they do not mate with each other. They will be introduced to other dolphins and form part of Ocean Park's breeding program.^[11]

Conservation Programs

Ocean Park has established a registered charitable non-governmental organization named Ocean Park Conservation Foundation Hong Kong (OPCFHK, 香港海洋公園保育基金). OPCFHK has funded various research projects on dolphins, horseshoe crabs, porpoises, giant pandas, snakes and birds in various Asian countries, including Indonesia, China and the Philippines.

Mascots

Ocean Park introduced a waving sea lion named Whiskers (known as Wai Wai in Chinese) as its major mascot on 9 December 2000. There are 5 more members of the Ocean Park family: James Fin H₂O (a shark); Jewel (a butterfly); Swift (a dolphin); Chief (a parrot); and Professor (a turtle).

Further development

In March 2005, Ocean Park announced a master plan to redevelop the park into the world's best marine-based theme park, doubling the number 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 another major theme park, Hong Kong Disneyland. On 23 November 2006, Ocean Park held a groundbreaking ceremony for its redevelopment. The new Ocean Park's main two areas will 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, a new live animal show and an area featuring polar animals. The first attraction to be opened is the Sky Fair with a balloon for tourists to fly up 80 feet.

Ocean Park also announced that an MTR station, Ocean Park Station, has been planned on the future South Island Line in the hope that it would bring more visitors.

Gallery

References

^ "Ocean Park, Hong Kong - World’s Seventh Most Popular Amusement Park - Meet Pandas Here!". China Travel Golden Route. http://www.china-travel-golden-route.com/Ocean_Park.html. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
^ "The 50 Most Visited Places in The World". Itv News. http://www.itvnews.tv/Blog/Blog/the-50-most-visited-places.html. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
^ ^a ^b "Corporate Information - General Facts". Ocean Park Corporation. http://www.oceanpark.com.hk/html/en/footer/corporate-information/facts.html. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
^ "OCEAN PARK HONG KONG NOW WORLD’S NO. 15 THEME PARK AS RANKED IN TEA/ERA ATTRACTION ATTENDANCE REPORT 2008". Ocean Park Corporation. http://www.oceanpark.com.hk/html/en/footer/corporate-information/press/press.php?id=366. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
^ Hong Kong Ocean Park To Raise Price From 1 October, China Hospitality News.
^ Diana Lee, Baby hopes for new HK celebrities, The Standard, April 27, 2007
^ ""Living fossil of fish" Chinese sturgeons debut in HK". Xinhua. 20 June 2008. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/20/content_8408549.htm.
^ 明報新聞網
^ Elaine WU (15 July 2008). "Ocean Park nets five more sturgeon". South China Morning Post.
^ "HK returns sick sturgeon to China". BBC. 8 January 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7818440.stm.
^ Ottermann, Birgit (2009-07-01). "PE dolphins ready for HK trip". News24. http://www.news24.com/Content/SciTech/News/1132/1d0d3da831564d6892dec0e94e53f37b/01-07-2009%2012-07/PE_dolphins_ready_for_HK_trip. Retrieved 2009-08-03.

External links

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Ocean Park, Hong Kong

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