Ocean Park, Hong Kong

Ocean Park () 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 Hong Kong's very own theme park.

The park has 4.2 million visitors annually in recent years. It has an area of 870,000 square metres. The different parts of the park are connected by cable car, as well as the world's second longest outdoor escalator. The theme park currently has over 40 rides and attractions.

Ocean Park features a Giant panda exhibit, a butterfly garden, a shark tank, and a three-storey aquarium, as well as numerous rides. The park also has its own cable car system, which takes visitors from one side of the park to the other (the two parts are separated from each other by hills). The official mascot of Ocean Park is "Whiskers" -- a waving sealion.

Besides being an amusement park, Ocean Park Hong Kong also includes 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, proving the standard of its laboratories.

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 organization for commercial purposes.

In the early operation of the park, the main sources of income for the park are the ticket revenues and the fundings from the Jockey Club. Since the ticket price was pretty low, most of the time Ocean Park was operating under deficit. In 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 seperated Ocean Park from Jocket 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.

Since it was permitted to use commercial means to operate, it gradually raised its ticket price and the deficit turnd into profit. In 1992, 3 million visitors visited the park. Though since 1998, because of the East Asian financial crisis and its aging attractions together with 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, 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 astonishing 4 million visitors in the fiscal year 2004-2005, the highest since the park opened.

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

Flying Swing

The Eagle

Crazy Galleon

Ferris Wheel

''Headland Games

Adventure Land

Mine Train

Space Wheel

Raging River

Ocean Park Escalator

Marine Land

Pacific Pier

Atoll Reef

Shark Aquarium

Ocean Theater

Ocean Park Tower
Sea Jelly Spectacular

Lowland Gardens

Giant Panda Habitat

Dinosaurs- Now and Then

Butterfly House

Goldfish Pagoda

Whiskers' Wild Ride

Amazing Amazon

The Amazing Birds Show

Caverns of Darkness 3D

Cable Car

Grand Prix

Kids' World

Dolphin University

Whiskers Theatre

Rides for Kids

Tiny Town Games

Bird Paradise

The Aviaries

Flamingo Pond

Dining

Headlands Rides

Adventure Land

Marine Land

Lowland Gardens

Kids' World

Bird Paradise

Middle Kingdom Restaurant

Silk Snack

Ching Bar

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 Kong dollar|HK$" target="_blank" >^* 5.55 billion will be spent on refurbishing Ocean Park with over 100 new rides being installed so that it can compete with Disneyland. In the last few years the Middle Kingdom, the portion of the park that features re-creations of ancient China, has been renovated.

The new Ocean Park will be divided into two major areas - 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, several new live animal shows and an area featuring polar animals.

Ocean Park also announced that there will also be an MTR 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 relieve the traffic of Aberdeen Tunnel.

External links

Gallery

Sea Jelly Spectacular Image:HK OP Sea Jelly 410 Location.jpg |Sea Jelly Spectacular, located near the bottom Cable Car station. Image:HK OP Sea Jelly 410 Octopus Jelly.jpg |Octopus Jelly Image:HK OP Sea Jelly 410 Flower Heat Jelly.jpg |One of the species of Octopus on display in Sea Jelly Spectacular Image:HK OP Sea Jelly 410 visitors.jpg |Tourist shooting photos Image:Oceanparkhk.jpg|A bird's eye view of Ocean Park from the Ocean Park Observatory.