Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens

From my blog

Hong Kong - Day 4 - Zoological and Botanical Gardens

We headed back down from Victoria peak on the tram and once at the bottom, we walked up to the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, quite a hike up the road, and quite a few steps, only to find ourselves at the very bottom of the zoo, with yet another walk to get up to where the animals are.

Overall a little disappointing - it's really a botanical garden with a couple of animals - not really what one would normally consider a zoo. Then again, it is free, and they do actually have quite an impressive bird collection, a couple of primates and a lone Jaguar (whom we didn't see given it was rather hot and it was obviously afternoon siesta time). It seems most people tend to come here for exercise, we saw quite a few people jogging around the park, some Tai-Chi performers, and given the steepness of the site, everyone else simply got a good cardiovascular workout by just walking around.

The gardens really are very nice, pity about the "keep off the grass" mentality though - the more carefully they tend it, the more inviting it is. Some of the nicest things are tucked away in little "grottos", where they have quiet spots with stone benches and other little features. The benches all have a little character at either end, cats on one, rabbits on another, pandas, and even Mickey Mouse. We took some photos, and once we have them developed I will post them somewhere, since they really were quite cute. Quite an exhausting time actually with all the walking up and down steep hills, but quite pleasant.