Hey everyone, I stumbled across this a couple of days ago and kind of remembered that I am kind of into animals/zoos etc. As a teenager, I always wanted to work with animals, but drifted away from it as I got older and went into teaching. I guess you could argue that there's a connection there. I'm living in Hong Kong now, but grew up in North Wales, so used to spend a lot of time at Chester Zoo and actually went back there this summer for the first time in years. My main hobby is actually theme parks, so zoos/aquariums often fall under the same remit, especially in Asia, but I still visit "just" zoos as well. As you can imagine, I've seen some pretty awful examples in this part of the world, but a lot of them are, perhaps surprisingly, not as bad as you might think and are definitely getting better as attitudes (slowly) change.
Welcome to Zoochat. What would you recommend as the "must see" animal experiences for a visitor to Hong Kong?
Ocean Park is the obvious answer. It has an amazing location and some excellent animal exhibits. The main aquarium, shark aquarium and Panda exhibits are the highlights for most people, but they also have koalas, Chinese sturgeon and Chinese alligators which can't be seen at many places. There's a free zoo very close to the city centre, but I don't rate it much. The walk-through aviary at Hong Kong park is very impressive, and Kowloon Park's small aviary and flamingo pond are decent enough. Kadoorie Farm (animal sanctuary) and Hong Kong Wetland Park are both nice, with opportunities to see both captive and wild animals at both. If you want to see wild monkeys, Kam Shan Park is heaving with them, though they can be seen in many other areas as well. We're very close to Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, which isn't in Hong Kong but is very close and is amazing: a definite must.
Also Mai Po for birdwatching, and sometimes going out to the western side of the sea may get you some chinese white dolphin.
