Ocean Park Hong Kong

The park's expansion steadily grew visitor numbers to 7.6 million in 2014, making it the world's 13th most visited theme park, and one of the largest theme parks in Asia.[6][7] From this high, visitor numbers declined to around six million in 2016 against the background of declining tourist arrivals in Hong Kong and competition from Chimelong International Ocean Tourist Resort in Zhuhai.[19] In January 2017, the Ocean Park saw a 30% surge in visitors, credited to a new rapid transit line, big discounts and an early Lunar New Year holiday,[20] but in 2019, lower numbers of mainland tourist arrivals, due to social unrest and continued competition from Chimelong, sunk attendance to 5.7 million.[18]

1. Kenneth Fung (1971–1982)
2. David Newbigging (1982–1984)
3. Gordon MacWhinnie (1984–1993)
4. Ronald Carstairs (1993–1996)
5. Robert Kwan (1996–1997)
6. Payson Cha (1997–2000)
7. Philip Chen (2000–2003)
8. Allan Zeman (2003–2014)
9. Leo Kung (2014–2020)
10. Lau Ming-wai (2020–2022)
11. Paulo Pong Kin-yee (2022– )

1. W. Williamson (1971–1980)
2. Kenneth Tomlins (1981–1987)

1. Kenneth Tomlins (1987–1991)
2. Darrell Metzger (1991–1995)
3. John Corcoran (1995–1999)[21]
4. Randolph Guthrie (1999–2004)
5. Tom Mehrmann (2004–2016)
6. Matthias Li (2016–2020)
7. Ysanne Chan (2020–2021)
8. Ivan Wong (2021– )

The Dragon roller coaster

This area was formerly known as two distinct areas: Marine Land and Headlands Rides.

• Pacific Pier – Mimics the rocky habitat of harbour seals and California sea lions on the Northern Californian coast.
• Chinese Sturgeon Aquarium – Yangtze River Exploration – The 3,500 square-metre freshwater aquarium houses Chinese sturgeons along with other native species of the Yangtze River, closed in 2019.
• Ocean Park Tower, Closing soon
• Sea Jelly Spectacular – Opened in 2006. Southeast Asia's first standalone sea jelly exhibit.
• The Dragon – Arrow Dynamics Custom Looper, first rollercoaster to feature a Sidewinder. Closed in February 2021.
• The Abyss – A turbo drop ride, closed since 31/8/2021.
• Flying Swing, closing soon.
• Wild Twister – A Mondial Ventura
• Crazy Galleon – A Huss Pirate ship, closing soon.
• Ferris Wheel, closing soon.
• Marine World Games Zone
• Garden of Joy

Thrill Mountain and Polar Adventure areas.

Thrill Mountain – Hair Raiser

Thrill Mountain was opened in December 2011. It is a carnival-themed area of 222,800 square feet. It offers five rides, eight booth games, as well as food, beverages, and merchandise.

• Hair Raiser – A floorless rollercoaster built by B&M with four inversions.
• Whirly Bird – A chair swing ride that soars 30 meters into the air
• Bumper Blaster – Bumper cars that can carry two in each car
• Rev Booster - A spinner ride
• The Flash - A swing ride that goes upside down, with its top speed being 60 km/h, at a height of 22m up into the air
• Bungee Trampoline – A trampoline that allows visitors to jump really high while strapped in bungee harnesses

South Pole Spectacular – Penguin

Polar Adventure was opened on 13 July 2012, featuring the North Pole Encounter, South Pole Spectacular and Arctic Fox Den, as well as the Arctic Blast roller coaster.

The attraction's carbon footprint is reduced through environmental technology including a ventilation system that recycles residual cool air to cool down the Life Support System (LSS) and plant room area before being discharged, which it is claimed cut electricity consumption by a third.

• Arctic Blast – A steel "roller coaster" located in the Polar Adventure with various dips and side turns. It is suitable for the whole family.[22]
• North Pole Encounter – visitors can meet Pacific walruses and spotted seals, and other animals from the North Pole including Steller sea lions and snowy owls. The animals can also be viewed via an underwater tunnel.
• South Pole Spectacular – It is home to three penguin species: king penguins, southern rockhopper penguins and gentoo penguins. The viewing chamber, glass-panelled floors, walkways and balconies overlooking the water allow visitors to see the penguins from different angles.
• Arctic Fox Den – visitors can see Arctic foxes here to learn about their behaviour and the impact of humans on their habitat.

Rainforest – The Rapids

The Rainforest was opened on 14 June 2011. Dozens of avian, terrestrial and aquatic animals living inside buttress roots accompany visitors on their immersive exploration of biodiversity. You will Get Wet on This ride, as water guns and sudden drops can and will soak you.

• The Rapids – A family river rapids ride along a rushing river that surrounds the themed zone.
• Expedition Trail – A walk-through rainforest exhibits where, visitors can meet some of the world's most striking tropical species, including Linnaeus's two-toed sloths, kinkajous, capybaras, toco toucans, green anacondas and more.
• Rainforest Why Zone – Trainers explain about rainforest animals in the wild and in captivity.

Aqua City was opened on 26 January 2011 and occupies around 200.000 square feet. It features:

• Grand Aquarium – Inside the Grand Aquarium, visitors can get up close to some 5,000 fish from over 400 species, such as the scalloped hammerhead and reef manta ray. Strolling through the Reef Tunnel and Panoramic Ocean Gallery, visitors can see the world's largest viewing dome in an aquarium, at 5.5 metres in diameter, and a 13-metre acrylic viewing panel, one of the largest in the world. It also features the world's first and only 360° water screen show Symbio! and Hong Kong's only restaurant inside an aquarium.
• Sea Life Carousel – Hong Kong's largest carousel, 15.1 metres across, with 61 carriers in 13 different designs inspired by endangered sea animals, holding up to 81 passengers.
• Old Hong Kong – Offers an immersive experience of culture, history, and delicacies of Hong Kong between the 1950s and the 1970s. It features a replica of Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier's clock tower and its signature toll, a manually retrofitted heritage tramcar and rows of tong lau-style apartment buildings. Visitors can also try more than 70 types of local street food and beverage that evoke the flavour of old Hong Kong. The area also provides a wide array of classic booth games.
• Waterfront Plaza – Features a lively carnival setting with a rotating mix of shows, magic and other acts performed by clowns, acrobats and jugglers. This area sets the backdrop for many of Ocean Park's festive events.

• Giant Panda Adventure – A purpose-built habitat that houses 2 rare giant pandas - Ying Ying, and Le Le as well as red pandas. It also houses the critically endangered Chinese giant salamander.
• Panda Village – displays Asian small-clawed otters and a variety of Asian bird life in a woodland setting.
• Gator Marsh – A wetland setting, featuring endangered Chinese alligators from the Yangtze River.
• Goldfish Treasures – A goldfish pavilion featuring the latest and rarest varieties such as the Black Oranda and Blue Phoenix Eggfish. Explains the history and importance of the goldfish in Chinese culture.
• Hong Kong Jockey Club Sichuan Treasures – home to two golden snub-nosed monkeys, Le Le and Qi Qi, from Sichuan. Le Le and Qi Qi's offspring, Lokie (born 2017), is the first golden monkey born in Hong Kong and also resides there. The exhibit also acts as a resource centre on the care and conservation of this species. Pandas Jia Jia and An An also once lived there until their deaths.
• Emerald Trail – A verdant garden featuring natural settings with flowers, tall trees, stone bridges and gentle pools.

Whiskers Harbour, previously called Kid's World, features attractions for younger children, over an area 14,200 square metres.

• Balloon Up-up-and-away – A hot air balloon-themed Ferris wheel for very young visitors.
• Clown a Round – This merry-go-round has clown cars for younger kids to whirl around in.
• Frog Hopper – A kid's version of a thrill ride. Young visitors strap into the mechanised 'frog', hop high into the air and land back on their feet.
• Merry-go-round – A classic children's merry-go-round with gilded fairytale horses.
• Bouncer House – An inflatable, fully padded, covered house for children to bounce around in.
• Whiskers Harbour Playground – A safe, child- (and parent)-friendly haven for kids to run around and explore slides, see-saws, tunnels and jungle gyms.
• Interactive Shadow Play – Kids get to play simple spelling and skill games on interactive multimedia screens. Correct answers are rewarded with audiovisual presentations.
• Animal Story Corner – Children can explore interactive educational displays about different land, air and sea animals, and what makes each of them distinct.
• Whiskers Harbour Games Zone – The area offers over twenty classic arcade games.
• Toto the Loco – A small train that takes young visitors through a mini forest to meet clowns playing accordions, cellos and violins.
• Little Meerkat and Giant Tortoise Adventure - A newly opened display that shows meerkats and Aldabra giant tortoises in a theme of the African Savannah

Former attractions of Ocean Park include:

• Atoll Reef. It was located in Marine Land (now Marine World). Closed in early 2011 after 34 years of operation, many of the animals were transferred to the new Grand Aquarium.[23] It was converted into Shark Mystique, which houses several species of sharks.
• Middle Kingdom. Opened in 1990, this area featured traditional Chinese culture and heritage along with buildings resembling traditional Chinese buildings. It closed in 2001,[24][25] but the Middle Kingdom Restaurant was in operation until 2007.
• The Bird Paradise area, located in Tai Sue Wan near Adventure Land, closed down in 2013. It contained The Aviaries and Flamingo Pond. Plans are underway to redevelop this area into Water World.[26]
• Space Wheel: A HUSS Enterprise. Formerly located in the Adventure Land section of the park.

Located in Bambooz Zone, Star Explorers Club showcases various animals. The show is on selected dates at 2:30pm.

Located in the Ocean Theatre, the show provides visitors with more opportunities to close encounter dolphins and sea lions, get to know their daily lives and conservation tips. Show Times: Weekdays: 12pm, 3:30pm, 5pm / Weekends & Holidays; 11:30am, 2pm, 3:30pm, 5:30pm

Amazing Asian Animals – panda Ying Ying

Giant Panda at Ocean Park

Red Panda at Ocean Park

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 China in 1999. The pair were given permanent homes in the 'Hong Kong Jockey Club Sichuan Treasures' area. In 2007, two more pandas were given to Hong Kong to mark the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty. The pair of two-year-old pandas, 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 Centre in Wolong in Sichuan province. After quarantine, they made their first public appearance in Giant Panda Adventure on 1 July 2007.[28] A new compound was prepared at the park to house them on their arrival. In 2019, Ocean Park said that they were thinking if 14-year-old panda pair Le Le and Ying Ying didn't give birth to a cub some time later, Ocean Park will send them back to the Wolong National Nature Reserve or back into the wild of Sichuan. In August 2015, Jia Jia became the oldest breeding panda in the world at the age of 37. Sadly, Jia Jia began to suffer the effects of advanced aging in October 2016, refusing most food and fluids and rapidly losing weight. On 16 October, after having been found unable to walk, her vets decided to euthanize her. Then age 38 (114 in panda years), she was sometimes billed as the oldest panda in the world. She was definitely known to be the oldest panda in captivity. Although there is no such certain data regarding pandas in the wild, their life expectancy in the wild is 15 to 20 years, giving the claim a good likelihood of being correct.[29]

The Park's Marine Mammal Breeding and Research Centre houses nine Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins. In July 2009, Domino and Dumisa, two dolphins from Bayworld in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, arrived at Ocean Park. The dolphins, a father and daughter pair, were separated to ensure that they do not mate with each other. They formed part of Ocean Park's breeding programme.[30] In May 2001, two of Ocean Park's female dolphins, Ada and Gina, each delivered a healthy calf, a female and male respectively, the world's first two bottlenose dolphin calves as a result of artificial insemination. This marked an important development in reproductive physiology and controlled breeding of marine mammals.

Hoi Wai was a female killer whale, captured near Iceland in 1977 and kept at Ocean Park from January 1979 to April 1997.[31][32] Miss Hoi Wai was about 5 metres (16 ft) long and weighed about 1,800 kilograms (4,000 lb).[33] She died from an emergency intestine infected wound in 1997. In Hong Kong, Miss Hoi Wai (海威小姐) is still considered an icon and celebrity to this day. She was kept with Prince, a male killer whale who lived at the park from April 1989 until his death in July 1991. They produced no offspring.

The Chinese sturgeon were introduced to the park in 2008, and as at 2013, Ocean Park houses nine Chinese sturgeons, displayed in Chinese Sturgeon Aquarium – Yangtze Exploration. 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.[34] However one of them died after a few days, apparently bitten by a barracuda. On 14 July 2008, it was announced that Hong Kong would receive another five sturgeon from the Chinese National Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Association in time for 8 August opening ceremony, to complement the four fish already in situ. The park's management opted to evict its sharks from their aquarium in favour of the new arrivals.[35] On 12 December 2008, a second sturgeon died from an infection. A third one died from an injury and two nine-year-old sturgeon were found to be ill in January 2009. The two sick fish, measuring 2.3m and 1.5m, were returned to the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute for expert care.[36] Ocean's Park returned to mainland China the last batch of six Chinese sturgeon in December 2019.[37]

Ocean Park runs a series of programmes called "Get Closer to the Animals" which offer supervised access to its resident animals, from swimming with dolphins to learning to be a panda keeper. Holders of a diving certificate can even enter the Grand Aquarium, while an overnight camp within its dome offers a drier way to view the underwater world. There are behind-the-scenes tours of many facilities, often including the chance to get close to animals such as penguins, seals and other polar animals.

Ocean Park introduced a waving sailor sea lion named Whiskers (known as Wai Wai in Chinese) as its major mascot in 2000. Subsequent members of the Ocean Park 'family' include James Fin (a shark), Jewel (a butterfly, now retired), Swift (a dolphin), Chief (a parrot), Professor (a turtle), Later Gator (a crocodile), Fluffi (an Arctic fox), Redd (a red panda), Goldie (a goldfish), Tux (a penguin), Doug (a rockhopper penguin), and four giant pandas: An An, Jia Jia, Le Le and Ying Ying.

Ocean Park station on the South Island line is located adjacent the main entrance of the park. The station opened on 28 December 2016 and connects Ocean Park directly to Hong Kong's MTR system, from Admiralty station.

The Citybus Ocean Park Express (Route 629)‍ used to provide departures from Central Piers to Ocean Park only. This route has since stopped its regular service due to a decline in passenger numbers.

Passengers may use any of the Aberdeen Tunnel bus routes and walk to the park from the Aberdeen Tunnel Toll Plaza bus stop.

The venue is also accessible by taxi, private hire car or personal car. The park provides some car park spaces close to the main entrance, however, the car park can be busy during peak times. Road access is via Route 1 (Aberdeen Tunnel) from central and eastern districts of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, New Territories or Pok Fu Lam Road from western districts.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest in the city, Ocean Park has been struggling financially since 2019, reporting loses of over HKD$5 million each year. Looking for a lower financial risk, Ocean Park plans to attract investors by outsourcing parts of its theme park for designated future purposes. These include an RDE district in The Waterfront, an 'adventure zone' in its former Adventure Land, a 'wellness zone' in its Marine World and a former unused land, next to the existing 'The Fullerton Ocean Park Hong Kong' resort hotel and Water World, a new-built second generation waterpark and a new pay-per-ride system for its existing rides in the Summit. These developments are set to be rolled out from the 2026/27 season.[44]

Ocean Park has been criticised by wildlife advocates for certain practices including the wild capture of large sea animals, such as dolphins and orca, and the presentation of shows featuring such animals performing. Opponents have highlighted their views on international "Empty the Tanks" day – a non-violent multinational demonstration that aims to end the capture and sale of wild dolphins to marine parks, where the creatures are said to die younger and breed much less. There is concern for the psychological state of the mammals alongside their physiological needs. And the advocates say it sends the wrong message, not only to visitors but also to marine parks in mainland China, which, if they copied the Park's practices, could have a significant impact on wild populations.[10][11]

Ocean Park has posted HK$31.8 million deficit in the financial year ending 30 June 2021, despite receiving HK$1.45 billion government funding.[45]

Since 2008, the Park has held a popular annual Halloween Bash through the month of October. Themes such as "Fear Formula" and "Haunted Hong Kong" provide modern twists on the traditional halloween rituals, including various attractions and activities.

Giant Panda at Ocean Park

The Animal in High Definition Months enable visitors to encounter a variety of rare animals up close, with educational experts on hand to disseminate information about these creatures. The Animal in High Definition Month for 2010 had a reptile theme called, "Mighty Dragons". In 2012, the event let visitors explore Chinese national treasures, featuring the display of two Sichuan golden monkeys.

The event is held each summer, with visitors partaking in various wet and wild thrills, including water games and water slides.

Christmas themed celebrations held from December to January every year.

Chinese New Year celebration events are held around January to February every year. The celebration usually features lantern displays, God of Fortune visits, lion and dragon dances. In 2013, the CNY Fiesta featured a 12-metre spinning lantern, as well as a traditional Chinese drum show.