What’s New at the Cherry Blossom Garden?

The recent additions to the garden make it one of the best places to see cherry blossoms in Hong Kong. This year, it has a waterfront promenade with more trees. Sightseers can also unwind at lounge chairs, and even picnic at a grassy area. This is an extension of the landscaping features, information boards, and photo spots that were added when the garden opened for the 2024 season, making it the Hong Kong’s largest dedicated sakura spot. The first batch of trees is in full bloom while the second is on track to flower in two weeks.

How to Get to There

The cherry blossom garden is along Chek Lap Kok South Road, near the foot of Scenic Hill on Lantau Island. Anyone taking the MTR needs to get to the Tung Chung Station, then walk past the cable car terminal and carry on past the cable car terminal. Once you’re on the Chek Lap Kok South Road, it’s about 15 minutes to the garden. If you’re on one of the Ngong Ping Cable Cars with a see-through bottom, you can get a bird’s-eye view of the pink blooms.

Visitors can also hop aboard S Bus Routes from the Tung Chung Bus Terminus, alight at the Aviation Fuel Tank Farm stop, then walk head towards the petrol bunk along Scenic Road. If you’re coming from downtown, take any of the E series buses and get off at the Chek Lap Kok South Road stop. Check out the full list of bus routes here.

Image credits: Hong Kong International Airport

When can Ocean Park visitors see the panda cubs?

According to an announcement on Ocean Park Hong Kong’s official Instagram page, the panda twins will first be at a greeting ceremony on February 15. The pair will then make their official debut to park visitors on February 16 at the park’s Giant Panda Adventure section. The other four pandas — Ying Ying, Le Le, An An, and Ke Ke — will be at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Sichuan Treasures.

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However, the nearly six-month-old cubs do not have names yet. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said that a naming competition may be in the works. “I’m all for naming campaign so everyone can get involved… [and] share in the joy of this big family. I will be announcing the details later,” he said.

How many pandas are there in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong currently has six giant pandas. The oldest are Ying Ying and Le Le, the parents of the panda cubs born in August 2024. The 19-year-old Ying Ying also holds the record for being the oldest first-time panda mother in the world. Two five-year-old pandas from Mainland China also arrived in the city and went on view last December.

In 2023, the park announced that it would welcome more red pandas as part of a collaboration with the Forestry and Grassland Administration of Sichuan Province. In addition, the stay of its current resident red pandas on loan from the Mainland — Tai Shan, Cong Cong, and Rou Rou — was extended by another 20 years. 

Image credits: Ocean Park Hong Kong

The five-year-old female and male giant pandas have been getting used to eating bamboo sourced from Guangdong and understanding commands in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English during training sessions at Ocean Park. They will also get new names after the results of a naming competition that received 22,600 entries are announced. Visitors can see them at the Club Sichuan Treasures enclosure at the park.

Last month, the twin panda cubs who were born in August 2024 had their 100-day celebration marked with a special feeding ceremony, which was live-streamed to park visitors at Whiskers Theatre. The cubs — a male and a female — will most likely make their first appearance to visitors in early 2025 when they are six months old. The cubs are the offspring of Ying Ying and Le Le, Ocean Park’s 19-year-old resident pandas who both arrived in the city in 2007. Their birth made Ying Ying the oldest first-time panda mother on record.

The arrival of four new pandas in Hong Kong is being commemorated with the upcoming Panda Go! Fest HK, during which 2,500 panda sculptures will go on display at four different locations across Hong Kong from December 7-26, 2024. The pandas will be on view at Avenue Of Stars, Ngong Ping 360, Ocean Park Hong Kong, and Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park.

Image credits: Ocean Park Hong Kong

Long Valley Nature Park is a freshwater wetland area located between the Sheung Yue and Shek Sheung rivers. It comprises three zones — the Biodiversity Zone for core conservation, the Agriculture Zone for eco-friendly farming, and the Visitor Zone equipped with facilities for visitors and educational activities. It was set up to compensate for wetland loss in Kwu Tong North and Fanling North New Development Area, and construction began in 2019. 

Unlike coastal wetland, which is influenced by salty sea water, the freshwater wetland in the Long Valley Nature Park provides completely different habitats for water birds, amphibians, reptiles, and other wetland animals. Over the past three years, the numbers of critically endangered birds such as the Yellow-breasted Bunting, as well as nests of the Black-winged Stilt and the endangered Black-faced spoonbill have increased severalfold in the area.

Earlier this year, Hong Kong opened Robin’s Nest, the SAR’s 25th country park, which covers a series of mountain ridges stretching from the Shenzhen Wutong Mountain Scenic Area to the north and Pat Sin Leng Country Park to the south. The territory is also set to get its largest marine park in North Lantau, which will span 2,400 hectares and aims to aid the conservation of the famed Chinese White Dolphins.

Image credits: GovHK

Tsuchinshan-ATLAS passes by earth every 60,000-80,000 years, and was discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory (Tsuchinshan) in Mainland China in January 2023, after which the ATLAS automated telescope in South Africa photographed independent images of the comet. In the image, the comet appears as a long black streak, as the sun was low in the sky when the image was captured.

At present, the heavenly object will appear in the eastern sky at around dawn, and will then be visible in the western sky at around dusk from the middle of this month. So far, it has been spotted over Tsim Sha and Yuen Long. While it cannot be viewed with the naked eye, it can be captured on film with long-exposure photography.

The last time a rare comet was spotted over Hong Kong was in 2021, when comet Leonard C/2021 A1 was the year’s brightest such celestial body. It was most visible with binoculars in mid-December, and appeared like a blurry star to the naked eye.

Header image credits: Hong Kong Observatory

Visitors to Ocean Park Hong Kong will get to see four new pandas by early 2025. Authorities plan to unveil the first two pandas — which are gifted to the city by Mainland China — by the end of 2024. Park visitors can see the second pair of pandas, which are the first twin cubs born in Hong Kong, by early 2025.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Chief Executive John Lee said that that pair of pandas will arrive in Hong Kong at the end of September. “The pair of pandas gifted to Hong Kong will arrive on September 26. On Thursday morning, there will be a welcome ceremony when they arrive at the airport. They will then be sent to Ocean Park for quarantine,” said Lee, adding that the pandas’ isolation period will last 30 days. However, the pair need an additional 30 days to adjust to their new surroundings before they can be presented to the public.

The Hong Kong leader added that both pandas are 5 years old, and that the male named An An weighs 130 kgs, and the called Ke Ke female weighs 100 kgs. They will be housed on the Sichuan Centre of the Hong Kong Jockey Club at Ocean Park. Lee also said that there will be a naming competition in October to choose new names for the pandas.

When asked last week about when Hongkongers and other visitors to the city can see the panda cubs, Lee said, “We hope that we will be able to meet the two cubs born in Hong Kong as soon as possible. Hopefully, by the end of the year, we will see the two pandas from Beijing, and in the first quarter of 2025, we will meet the two cubs.”

The two cubs were born in mid-August and are the offspring of Ying Ying and Le Le, Ocean Park’s 19-year-old resident pandas who both arrived in the city in 2007. According to a recent statement from the park, the cubs have developed fur coats with their distinctive black-and-white markings. The female currently weighs 910 grams, and the male 814 grams. Ying Ying, who is also the oldest first-time panda mother on record, is healthy, but her post-partum recovery is slower than younger mothers on account of her age.

Image credits: Hong Kong Ocean Park

According to a statement from Ocean Park, Ying Ying started showing signs of pregnancy such as “decreased appetite, increased rest time, and changes in hormonal levels” at the end of July. The pregnancy was confirmed via ultrasound on August 11, and Ying Ying went into labour on August 14. She delivered a female cub weighing 122 grams at 2:05am and the 112-gram male at 3:27am on August 15.

Park officials say that both cubs are under 24-hour intensive care and are currently “very fragile and need time to stabilise, especially the female cub who has a lower body temperature, weaker cries, and lower food intake after birth.” Visitors will only be able to see the cubs after a few months. 

Ying Ying and Le Le arrived in Hong Kong in 2007 as gifts from Beijing. Despite attempts to get them to mate since 2010, this is the first time that they have produced offspring. Le Le recently celebrated his 19th birthday on August 8 and the park held combined birthday celebrations for both pandas last week. Ocean Park is also due to receive two more pandas from Mainland China to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. According to media reports, the new pandas will arrive in the SAR at the end of September.

Image credits: Hong Kong Ocean Park

According to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, the park will link the existing Sha Chau and Lung Kwu Chau Marine Park and Brothers Marine Park, as well as the Hong Kong International Airport Approach Areas. This will increase the area for the conservation of marine ecology, fisheries resources, and marine biodiversity in the western part of Hong Kong. The newly designated protected marine space will also border the Pearl River Estuary Chinese White Dolphin National Nature Reserve in Guangdong, and therefore will link the protected areas for the marine mammal between Hong Kong and Mainland China.

The North Lantau Marine Park is Hong Kong’s eighth marine park, and will come under the Marine Parks Ordinance (Cap. 476), which provides a legal framework for the designation, control, and management of all the territory’s marine parks and its sole marine reserve at Cape D’Aguilar. The Marine Parks (Designation) (Amendment) Order 2024 was tabled in the Legislative Council on June 19, and will come into effect on November 1, 2024.

Earlier this year, Hong Kong got its 25th country park — Robin’s Nest in Sha Tau Kok. When it opened in March, the 530-hectare park had two hiking trails accessible to the public: Robin’s Nest Country Trail and Lin Ma Hang Country Trail. Authorities are working on building a wider hiking trail network in the park, along with picnic sites and viewing points.

Header image credits: gionnixxx via Canva, Hong Kong Dolphinwatch

The king cobra, which can grow up to 18 feet long, is known to be the longest venomous snake in the world and is one of eight native land snake species in Hong Kong that can inflict fatal bites — if not treated in time. Snake sightings in the city increase when the weather is hot and humid — typically between April and May — and the reptiles can be spotted in forests, water culverts, jogging trails, rives, and lakes. King cobras are found in small numbers across Hong Kong, and their diet consists of rodents, lizards, and even other snakes.

These cobras usually avoid humans and do not attack them unless provoked. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department recommends that laypeople should not attempt to catch snakes themselves to avoid getting bitten, even if one enters their homes. Instead, they should call the police hotline at 999 or a professional snake catcher. Victims of king cobra bites should be taken to the nearest hospital for professional medical treatment as soon as possible.

Header image credits: William Sargent via Facebook

In 2023, new records were established based on six different datasets used by the organisation.

In Hong Kong, 2023 was notably warmer, with an average temperature of 24.5°C, significantly above the historical norm, marking it as the second-warmest year since 1884. The Observatory recorded a high number of extremely hot days and nights.

For 2024, the tropical cyclone season in Hong Kong is expected to commence in June, with 5 to 8 cyclones predicted to approach within 500km of the SAR, by October. Amid ongoing climate warming, temperatures are anticipated to exceed average levels, potentially ranking among the top ten warmest years. Rainfall is forecasted to be near normal, yet heavy rains could impact the region. Last year, Hong Kong got its heaviest rainfall in 140 years.

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As the rainy season nears, the HKO will implement a series of measures to better track the weather (i.e. replacement of the weather radar at Tai Mo Shan) and communicate more with the public during severe weather conditions, including hourly briefings under the Black Rainstorm Signal, more information regarding the weather in the Greater Bay Area (Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao) through the “MyObservatory” app, and the improvement of the chatbot, “Dr. Tin”.

Header Image Credit : The HK HUB and WikiImages and via Canva

According to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, which oversees all of the territory’s country parks, Robin’s Nest natural habitats include “secondary woodland, shrubland and upland grassland, [and is] is rich in biodiversity with many species of high conservation value, such as red azalea, incense tree, Chinese grassbird and Chinese pipistrelle.”

One of the biggest attractions in the park is the Lin Ma Hang Lead Mine, which will be turned into an open museum that the public can visit by the end of 2024. Once the mine is open, visitors can learn more about the galena mining history involving the site, as well as bat ecology. There are currently only two hiking trails that are open to the public — Robin’s Nest Country Trail and Lin Ma Hang Country Trail — and it takes 4-5 hours to walk along both. Authorities are working on building a wider hiking trail network in the park, along with picnic sites and viewing points.

Earlier this year, the Hong Kong government opened the Frontier Closed Area of Sha Tau Kok to tourists. Visitors who wish to go to the restricted area must apply for one-day permits using an online platform. Non-residents now have unrestricted access to most areas of the town — such as the largest remaining Guangzhou-style arcade complex in Hong Kong and the longest pier in the territory. The only part of the area that is off-limits to tourists is Chung Ying Street, which is shared between Hong Kong and Mainland China.

Image credits: GovHK

The theme for this year’s open-day sessions is ‘At the frontline of climate action’. Visitors will therefore get to see exhibitions that will raise public awareness about climate change and demonstrate how the observatory uses the latest technology to provide services such as weather forecasting, aviation weather, microclimate monitoring, and radiation monitoring.

Anyone interested in attending the event should register online for a convenient time slot between 9.30am and 5pm, after which they will receive a QR code for entry no later than March 12. Each person can apply for a maximum of four tickets. If there are too many applications for certain time slots, the observatory will select visitors through computer balloting. Those who cannot make it to the in-person sessions can watch the open day online.

Image credits: Stewart~惡龍 via WikiCommons

The cherry trees were planted by the Hong Kong International Airport, in collaboration with a company based in Guangzhou, and are said to have firmer flower buds and more red-hued petals. The new-look garden has additions such as small mounds, photo spots, garden designs, fences, information boards, and resting areas. This year, the trees are expected to be in full bloom next week.

There are several buses that visitors can take from Tung Chung or downtown Hong Kong to get to the cherry blossom garden. Nature and photography enthusiasts can also take the Tung Chung Line of the MTR, get off at the Tung Chung MTR Station, and then take a bus to the garden or walk along Chek Lap Kok South Road to get there.

There are many places in Hong Kong to see cherry blossoms, which usually bloom from February to May, depending on the weather and climate. However, warmer temperatures in the winter and early spring mean that the trees could be in full bloom earlier than normal. According to the Hong Kong Observatory, December 2023 was warmer than usual, while the mean temperature for this month, as of January 28, has been 17.9 degrees Celsius — higher than the normal of 16.5 degrees — despite the recent cold snap that saw reports of ice and frost at Tai Mo Shan.

Image credits: Hong Kong International Airport

Some of the other names that made the cut pay homage to Hong Kong cultural icons, such as food staple Red-bean and Stoneslab, the nickname for Pottinger Street. Siu-lung, the stage name of the late martial arts superstar Bruce Lee, also emerged as a potential tropical cyclone name, as did Sing-si, the Cantonese name for Lion Dance.

Last month, the Hong Kong Observatory announced that residents of the city could vote for 40 potential tropical cyclone names that were submitted by members of the public in mid-2023. Some of the entries that did not make it to the final 20 were Jia Jia and An An— the famously long-lived giant pandas who resided at Ocean Park until their demise — as well as Ying Ying and Le Le, the current park pandas who turned 18 last August.

Since 2000, the 14 members of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific/World Meteorological Organization Typhoon Committee have used a list to assign names to tropical cyclones in the western North Pacific and the South China Sea. The current list includes 10 names submitted by Hong Kong, such as the Signal T8 Lion Rock that hit Hong Kong in October 2016, and Yun-yeung that affected Japan in September 2023.

Header image credits: janetcmt via Flickr, chpua & Leung Cho Pan via Canva

Park authorities will accept submissions on their campaign website until January 31, 2024. Each participant must suggest both a Chinese and an English name, and explain the concept behind the name. The student conservation group Ocean Park’s Seahorse Rangers will first select a name between February 19 and 29. This will be followed by a second selection round from March 4-12, during which members of the public can vote for one of five shortlisted names for the crocodile on the park’s social media pages.

Ocean Park will announce the crocodile’s name on March 12. Whoever submits the winning name will win four annual Ocean Park memberships, four tickets to the park’s Get Closer to the Animals programmes, and a food and beverage voucher worth HK$2,000. There are prizes for individuals whose submissions make it to the top four, such as general admission tickets, passes for the park’s special programmes, and F&B vouchers.

The crocodile was first spotted by a resident of Lin Fa Tei in the New Territories area of Pat Heung last year, and was an important find as crocodiles are not native to Hong Kong. The reptile was examined by Ocean Park and found to weigh 35 kilos, and measure 1.9 metres long. Estimates place the crocodile at around four years old at the time it was adopted by the park. It is currently housed at the park’s back-of-house area, but will make its debut as a park exhibit soon.

Image credits: Ocean Park Hong Kong

While other photographers shared images of what the observatory has called ‘cloud gap light’, none of them were able to capture the fluctus, which is difficult to do as it typically lasts only a minute or two, therefore making it hard to spot. It is formed when two different layers of air with different temperatures and speeds come together, causing the upper layer to ripple and curl like waves. This results in a series of vortices that create the crashing-wave appearance of the cloud.

Last summer, the observatory shared another image of a fluctus formation that was taken over Victoria Harbour. An eagle-eyed photographer also took pictures of lenticular clouds, also known as flying saucer clouds, over the harbour in August 2023 — an unusual occurrence as they are not usually seen in the summer.

Header image credit: Leung Yu Po via Hong Kong Observatory

The government’s red-leaf updates for 2023-2024 began on December 1. However, the leaves — which usually turn red by mid-December — were green at the beginning of the month and only started to turn yellow in the last two weeks of December. The website, which is updated every Friday, currently shows that, as of December 29, the leaves are transitioning from yellow to red.

The city’s sweet gum (Liquidambar formosana) trees typically change colour due to dry weather in autumn, along with low temperatures and strong sunlight hastening the decomposition of chlorophyll (green pigment) and facilitating the production of anthocyanin (red pigment). The trees at Tai Tong line the road of Tai Lam Country Park, and the contrast between the fiery reds and yellows of the sweet gum and the greens of the surrounding evergreens make for stunning photographs.

Every year, the MTR arranges a special red-leaf bus service, the K66A, to ferry visitors between the Long Ping Station and Tai Tong Shan Road. The bus runs between Long Ping and Tai Tong Shan Road from 9am and 2pm, and returns to the station from the woods between 1pm and 7pm. The service will be in operation on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays until January 14, 2024. 

Those who head to the woods by car should note that the section of Tai Tong Shan Road between the Pavilion and Tai Tong Shan Road Car Park will be intermittently closed between 7am and 7pm on the days that the K66A is in operation.

Tai Lam Country Park is also home to the famous Tai Lam Chung Reservoir, which is one of the Top 10 Natural Wonders of Hong Kong, courtesy the Thousand Islands Lake that were once hills before Tai Lam Chung Valley was flooded.

Header image credits: Derek Yung via Canva

The golf club applied for UNESCO consideration earlier this year in an attempt to prevent the government from building public housing on it. The jury reviewed 48 project entries from eight countries across the Asia-Pacific region, and selected 12 projects based on their understanding of place, their technical achievements, and their sustainability and impact.

Two other sites in the region received Awards of Distinction: Dongguan Garden Residences in Yangzhou, China, and Karnikara Mandapam at Kunnamangalam Bhagawati Temple in Kerala, India. Three other places in Mainland China were also recognised by UNESCO — Yan Nan Yuan, at Peking University, Beijing and Pan Family Residence in Suzhou were bestowed with Awards of Merit, while the Award for New Design in Heritage Contexts went to Erlitou Site Museum of the Xia Capital in Luoyang.

Earlier this year, 32 hectares of the golf course that included part of the Old Course were returned to the government. This section now operates as a park managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, and has facilities such as an inclusive park for pets and a walking trail, as well as a two recently renovated 5-a-side hard-surface soccer pitches that are open to visitors every day.

However, the park, which the government refers to as the “park located east of Fan Kam Road”, occasionally returns to the Hong Kong Golf Club when there are tournaments, such as the recently-held Aramco Team Series in October, and the Hong Kong Open. In addition, the first three holes of the Old Course, which are still run by the Hong Kong Golf Club, are open to the public every Sunday as part of its Heritage Park programme.

Hong Kong has sites that have previously been acknowledged by UNESCO Asia-Pacific Cultural Heritage Conservation Awards, such as the Lai Chi Wo Rural Cultural Landscape Project (Special Recognition for Sustainable Development), Tai Kwun — Centre for Heritage and Arts (Award of Excellence), the Blue House Cluster (Award of Excellence), Revitalization of the Former Tai Po Police Station (Honorable Mention), and the Saltpans of Yim Tin Tsai (Award of Distinction).

Header image credits: UNESCO