Not Just another Amusement Park

Ocean Park is a busy amusement park in Hong Kong that has seen exponential growth in arrival numbers in recent times. Initially the park was built with donations from the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club and at first the amusement park made huge losses. However in 2004 and 2005 the park saw increased arrivals of up to 4 million visitors per year. In 2006 Forbes listed Ocean Park Amusement Park in seventh position of the World’s Best Amusement Parks list.

The theme park currently has over 14 rides with a few more in the pipeline and also features other attractions such as aquariums. 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”—the ever popular waving sea lion. The different parts of the park are connected by a cable car system as well as having the world’s second longest outdoor escalator.

Besides being an amusement park, Ocean Park Hong Kong also operates observatories and well developed laboratories. It also has an education department and a Whales and Dolphins Fund. In testament to not just being the typical theme park, Ocean Park Hong Kong was the first institution in the world to have success in artificial insemination of bottle nose dolphins, and has also developed numerous new breeds of goldfish.

With rapid redevelopment plans in place for Ocean Park, it is bound to see a plethora of visitors. A number of accommodation options are available for travelers with hotels ranging from budget to a five star hotel. For example in close proximity to the Ocean Park Amusement Park is the Cosmopolitan Hotel a luxury four star Hong Kong hotel.