My Very First Blog

Ocean Park Hong Kong is divided into two main areas - The Waterfront and The Summit. These two areas are separated by a mountain. Visitors can go from one to the other by cable car or by train.

Image courtesy of Funimag.com

What's unique about this Ocean Express Train is that it actually simulates the feeling of traveling under the sea in a submersible vehicle! When we were inside the train, we were transported to a world beneath the ocean where creatures of the deep swam all around us! This was cleverly done by using hi-tech multimedia technology.


The Ocean Express railway track 

At one point, I almost forgot I was traveling inside a train! I though I was really deep in the ocean. Although we reached The Waterfront Station in about 4 minutes, I felt it was much longer than that. If you ever go to Ocean Park, do not miss this train ride!

Once we were back at the Waterfront, we went around looking for food.



The above picture shows the Grand Aquarium which we visited earlier in the day. You can read about it HERE.

There were a row of shops and cafes facing the Aqua City Lagoon, where we were going to watch the Symbio water screen show later at night.



I love the colourful building and the cute stingray!



Next to the blue colour building is the Aqua City Bakery. We went in there for some quick bites.



It was in this bakery that I saw the panda cake I told you about in an earlier post!



No, we did not eat this panda cake but we ate some light snacks (sorry no photos) as we wanted to have a good dinner somewhere outside of Ocean Park later in the night. Most of the food here were super expensive and not worth the money!



After our light snacks, we walked over to another row of shops opposite, also facing the Aqua City Lagoon.



This Waterfront Gifts shop sells lots of souvenirs!



Lots of my favourite panda plushies, big and small!



Soon it was time for the show to begin. My friend and I tried to find a good place around the Aqua City Lagoon where we can have a good view of the water screen show. By then, many people were already there waiting.

Before the show started, we were entertained by the dancing water fountains.



The fountain of water changed colour every few seconds. It was a feast on the eyes! Can you see the Grand Aquarium in the background?



We found that we were too near the fountain as the water kept splashing at us. I was worried for my camera so we decided to move to a safer location.



The 360 degrees water screen show called Symbio is a world's first featuring two 9-metres tall fiery dragons fighting each other. The show which tells the story about the unions between humans, Earth and the need to protect our planet, is a mixture of hi-tech pyrotechnics, music and animation.

I managed to record part of the show on my iPhone although it was not very clear. Watch it below.



When the dragons hurled the fire across the water, I could feel the heat! It was almost as if we could touch the burning fire! Needless to say, the show was enjoyable from the beginning right to the end!

Just like the fireworks show at Disneyland, this Symbio show is a must-watch at Ocean Park. It is shown daily at 7.30pm. The show certainly served as a fitting end to my visit to this most entertaining Ocean Park in Hong Kong!

Now for the million dollar question : Will I ever return to Ocean Park in the future? You bet!

Having spent half a day at The Waterfront in Ocean Park Hong Kong, my friend and I took the cable car up to the The Summit.

This is the view I saw after we walked out of the cable car station.



I have to say the weather in Hong Kong during March was really pleasant! The only downside is that photos taken during this rather misty weather don't turn out that well.

We came across a beautiful mini garden complete with fishes and a dolphin!



Don't you think this picture below almost looks like scene from under the sea?



I wonder what is this blue fish with the giant bump on its head called? Reminds me of the flowerhorn fish!



The first place we wanted to visit was the Sea Jelly Spectacular.



Along the way to the Sea Jelly Spectacular, I saw The Abyss and The Eagle rides far away in the distance.



The Abyss (left) is a 20-floor vertical free fall ride and the Eagle (right) is a gravity-defying spinning ride, both of which I did not have the guts to try.

I snapped a picture of this ship. Is it a cargo ship?



I almost wanted to take a ride on the Ocean Park Tower. This soaring rotating tower is not unlike Malaysia's very own Menara Taming Sari in Melaka or Singapore's Tiger Sky Tower.



Soon, we reached the entrance to the Sea Jelly Spectacular.



I was quite impressed with the sea jellies! And there were thousands of them swimming away in water tanks and aquariums! I took a photo of these two jellyfishes that stuck themselves onto the glass!



These two looks somewhat magical.



Did these jellyfishes emit their own lights? It was quite astonishing really.



Fluorescent sea jellies? Hundreds of them floating serenely inside the water.



The sea jellies then turned red.



And then green.



Of course, they did not magically change colour. It was the special lighting technology that made them appeared as if they were changing to a different colour every few seconds. In any case, they were fascinating to look at!

There is also a mirror maze that reflects the jellyfish inside this enclosure which makes it a rather fun experience!

But my favourite sea jellies got to be this one!



They were so beautiful!









After leaving the Sea Jelly Spectacular, we went over to the Chinese Sturgeon Aquarium nearby to explore the history and culture of Yangtze River in China.



There seems to be some sort of a historical timeline that makes interesting reading but I did not bother to take photos of them all.



Inside the Chinese Sturgeon Aquarium, I saw strings of water falling down from the top into the drain below. I thought they looked beautiful, although I do not know what exactly they are for.



We then entered a tunnel with fishes swimming all around and above us! Among them was the endangered Chinese sturgeon!



Coming out from the tunnel, we saw something peculiar. The water droplets seemed to be moving in the reverse from the water pool at the bottom up to the shower above!



But of course, it was an optical illusion. I just do not know how they did it. The water droplets seemed magical to me!



This Chinese Sturgeon Aquarium was pretty interesting and educational!



There were many rides for adults at The Summit. If you are keen on all those thrilling, heart-stopping and adrenaline pumping rides, you will have a great time here!

Besides The Abyss and The Eagle mentioned earlier, there are The Dragon roller coaster and Crazy Galleon at Marine World, Mine Train and Space Wheel at Adventure Land, Hair Raiser and Bungee Trampoline at Thrill Mountain, and The Rapids at Rainforest! And that's just naming a few of them!

Check out all the rides HERE.

We did not sit any of the rides. Simply because we were too lazy to queue up. And besides, we were hungry.  Yes, the only food we ate that whole day was the yummy breakfast at the Australia Dairy Company in Jordan before we arrived at Ocean Park!

As we walked past this Haagen-Dazs sign, I almost wanted to open up the 3 huge tubs of Haagen-Dazs ice cream!



But these 3 tubs were actually seats! Yes, seats painted to look like Haagen-Dazs ice cream tubs!

It was already 6pm in the evening. My friend and I decided to go back down to The Waterfront for dinner  before the much talked-about water screen show at The Lagoon in Aqua City start. Yes, it's the world's first 360 degrees water screen show called Symbio which was scheduled at 8pm and we would not want to miss that for the world!

So we headed towards the Ocean Express Summit Station to take the train down. Along the way, I snapped a picture of this.



Do you know what flowers are those?

I really love the scenery from up here. It was awesome.



Soon, we reached the Ocean Express Summit Station, with the two giant seahorses guarding the entrance.



It was no ordinary train ride. More about this special train in my next post, so stay tuned : )

After spending half a day visiting giant pandas and other Asian animals at The Waterfront of Ocean Park Hong Kong, my friend and I decided it's time to go up to The Summit. We decided it was best to sit the cable car on the way up and then take the Ocean Express Train on the way down.

But before we even reached the cable car station, we were horrified to see a long queue ahead of us!



I hate having to queue but I just had to get on that cable car as I wanted to see the views from up there. We ended up queuing for about one hour before reaching the cable car station.



Soon, we were inside the cable car. There were only 6 seats inside, so each cable car could fit up to 6 people at any one time.



Despite suffering from a fear of heights, I did not feel any fear at all. Perhaps I was too busy admiring the view of The Waterfront below. From up here, I could easily identify all the major attractions like the Grand Aquarium, Giant Panda Habitat, Amazing Asian Animals and SkyFair.



I like that the cable cars came in different colours. They were nice to look at. I like this purple one!



Halfway during the ride, the ocean came into view.



The panoramic view of the South China Sea from up here was awesome.



Soon, we passed the mountain separating The Waterfront and The Summit. I could see the roller coaster ride in the distance although I could not catch it on my camera.



I have no more photos to show after this except another shot of the sea with the surrounding islands.



It took about 15 minutes for the 1.4 km journey to reach The Summit cable car station.



As soon as we alighted from our cable car, we headed towards the next attraction in Ocean Park - The Sea Jelly Spectacular.