Yesterday, after we went on the Ngong Ping 360, we saw some buses advertising Hong Kong Wetland Park. So we decided to go!
Hong Kong Wetland Park is located in Tin Shui Wai (天水圍), which is in the New Territories and easily accessible by a long, scenic bus ride or a quicker MTR ride. Within Tin Shui Wai, you can take the lightrail to the Wetland Park or you can walk, just following the light rail tracks and the signs.
There wasn’t very many people when we went. Which is kinda understandable because, after all, it is a nature park and not really the top tourist destination. Unless you have a keen interest for wildlife (especially wetland-related wildlife), I wouldn’t recommend trying to squeeze HK Wetland Park into an already packed touring schedule. It’s a nice place to visit if you have some more time in Hong Kong, especially on a cooler day. Otherwise, the heat and humidity could make you pretty miserable walking around outside in nature.
The whole area is really beautiful, including all the buildings and paths. There’s a lot of animal statues and water features. Also the architecture design is a mix of concrete, metal, and wood which has a nice effect.
Also, the place is very English friendly! Everything is labeled in Traditional Chinese and English.
Admission is also super cheap! I think the tickets only cost $30 HKD.
It’s so relaxing inside the main building.. There’s a souvenir shop and a cafe too. (I, of course, had to buy something — a completely unrelated rooster stapler. But they also had fiddler crab umbrellas and other wetland-related goods.)
They also have the stamp system (where you can find stamping stations around the park to collect all the stamps), but I only managed to get 2..I’m not sure why I missed all the stamping stations T-T
Hong Kong Wetland Park is the permanent home to a celebrity crocodile named Pui Pui (you can read a bit about her on Wikipedia). When we were there, Pui Pui was absolutely still and just had her mouth wide open the whole time.
After Pui Pui, we just followed the path and walked around the park. All the plants are labeled, so you can learn quite a bit about different the different flora. There’s also some other creatures — mainly birds and bugs. (I wasn’t really too interested in the insects. In fact, I may have briefly shrieked and ran away from them.) I do love lotus flowers though.
There’s also a building in the center of the water area which is a bit of a discovery center for children (and adults). It has some aquariums with examples of different species, including invading species. There’s also a free art craft and some art displays.
I really liked this paper cutout of a fiddler crab:
You can see the contrast between nature and skyscrapers when walking around the park, as the apartment buildings of Tin Shui Wai are always visible in the distance.
There’s also a few bird watching buildings equipped with Swarvoski binoculars in the various areas of the park. You are asked to be quiet to not scare away the birds.
My personal favorite part of the park was the Mangrove Boardwalk.
If you look closely at this picture, you can see all the tiny Fiddler Crabs and Mudskippers (so cute!) spotted along the shores of the skinny stream. FYI: The Fiddler Crabs with one big claw are male ones. The bigger claw is used for fighting, the mini claw for eating. Females just have two mini claws.
And here’s some close ups:
And a video, so you can fully appreciate the Mudskippers and Fiddler Crabs in action.
There’s also butterflies fluttering all around the park, as well as a Butterfly Garden area.
We left the park and took the underpass back towards the Tin Shui Wai Light Rail to ride it back towards a MTR connecting station (to go back to Mong Kok).
The Tin Shui Wai Light Rail system works a bit different than the normal MTR. Instead of ticket gates, they just have scanners that you can place your Octopus card on. (I’m not sure what you do if you don’t have an Octopus card..I almost think it’s necessary.) You scan your Octopus card whenever you get on (the orange “Entry” scanners) and get off (the green “Exit” scanners).
After taking care of some errands in Mong Kok, we went back to Kornhill Plaza 康怡花園 because they have a good toy store there (as well as a lot of eating places and a JUSCO). I bought some miniatures — including a T for Candy Mah Jong set!! Then we waited FOREVER in the queue for Genki Sushi, which is a cheap conveyer-belt style restaurant.
