My trip to the Kowloon City Park was a sheer luck. While roaming in the streets of Canton Road, Kowloon Island, I was looking for the direction to Kowloon Walled City Park. But, the people directed me towards the City Park. Both parks are far away from each other.
I was staying in Chung King Mansion at Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui and City Park is just a kilometer walk from there. I visited the park and enjoyed it very much, but did not recognize it was not the park, I wanted to visit. Later, after three days only I realized my mistake and made an another trip to the Kowloon Walled City Park.
Kowloon Park was opened in 1970 and underwent a significant redevelopment in 1989. The site was once home to the British Army’s Whitfield Barracks part of which has been restored and now, known as the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Center. This center is renowned for its thematic exhibition gallery, lecture hall, educational activity room and reference library. The park contains a swimming pool, sports center, bird lake, aviary, dance rooms, fitness rooms, squash rooms, etc.
Kowloon City Park is located in the central zone of Tsim Sha Tsui and considered as one of the largest parks in Kowloon. There are many entrance for this park. I was on the Canton Road, so a fellow Indian suggested me to go in from the Royal Pacific Tower. As suggested by him, I just entered the hotel lobby and went to an over-bridge joining hotel and the park entrance.
I welcomed by a group of Flamingos and swiftly passed through a pristine lake towards the remote end of the park, as I wanted to explore this park from the other end. The park boasts an abundance of scenic spots and enough establishments for tourists to enjoy themselves.
At the one end of the park, I came across a charming garden of Hyacinths Flowers. The Hyacinths flowers’ bed was breathtakingly beautiful with gorgeous flowers all around.
There are many green trees and plants are located inside the park. To enjoy the scenic beauty around and experience nature at its best, there are quite a good arrangement of wooden and steel benches inside the park.
The walkways remain relatively empty inside the park. Few people cross this park to reach their offices, some people come here for the morning walks and very less numbers of tourists are interested in this park. This park looks very close to nature with its peaceful environment and lesser crowd. Benches and chairs are available in plenty to sit down and to relax here.
While walking across the various corners of this park, I came across a temporary pavilion of Hong Kong Exhibits near Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Center. This was organized as Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism for a one month duration. Designed by a local Bamboo master, the pavilion for Hong Kong Exhibits is anchored by two case studies examining Architecture’s response to changing social and economic conditions, reflecting the curatorial theme of time, place and people.
One shows the local school typologies, while the other focuses on East Kowloon’s history and development. As more and more manufacturing has moved to Mainland China, and especially after the relocation of the airport to Lantau Island, this area has become a new void in the city. Planners and designers are currently in the process of re-imagining this neighborhood as an embodiment of the new part of Hong Kong.
Just outside the Hong Kong Exhibits, there is a toilet available for public usage without any charges. I had never seen such a neat and clean, well maintained toilet in India, except inside few shopping malls and at the airports. Population of India may be a reason for the terrible state of toilets. However in Hong Kong, I noticed an excellent level of cleanliness at the crowded beaches and tourist places also.
Note: In 2014, The Indian Government launched an ambitious project known as Swachha Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission). The sanitation is presently a significant priority for the majority of the population in India, and such type of clean toilets are visible at many places across the country.
Read about the other Tourist Attractions in the vicinity: Places of Interest Near Victoria Harbour
Moving further, I reached in the middle of an attractive green garden. There are beautiful plants, fountains, and flowers inside the garden enhancing its natural charm. In front of that, there is a beautiful steel structure surrounded by water bodies near the sole food corner of the park.
From there, I moved towards the aviary section of the park. The park has a small aviary with around 40 species of 140 birds including macaws, parrots hornbills, etc.
From the aviary, I went towards the Harbour City gate of the park and from there moved back towards the lake. The Lake is full of many birds including swans, flamingos, ducks, etc. There is plenty of turtles to pose for a prefect picture.
I spent at least three hours in the park and stunned with the tranquil beauty and greenery of this park in the middle of the concrete jungle of Hong Kong.
Read also about a spectacular laser show at Victoria Harbour: Symphony of Lights
Important Facts:
Admisson: Free admission to park. Charges apply for swimming pool and sports center.
Opening Hours:
Park open 5am to midnight daily.
Swimming pool open 6-30am to 12 noon, 1pm to 5pm and 6pm to 10pm daily.
Sports Centre open 7am to 11pm daily.
Bird Lake open 6-30am to 6-45pm.
Aviary open 6-30am to 6-45pm March to October, 6-30am to 5-45pm November to February.
Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre open 10am to 6pm Monday to Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10am to 7pm Sundays and public holidays. Closed Thursdays.
How to Reach? Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station exit A1 (next to Kowloon Mosque on Nathan Road) at southern end of park. Jordan MTR Station exit D then cross Nathan Road and walk (about 3 minutes) short distance along Austin Road for northern end of park next to Tsim Sha Tsui Police Station.
Several entrances are also on the Nathan Road, Haiphong Road, Kowloon Park Road, Canton Road and Austin Road.
Also an elevated pedestrian walkway from Promenade Level of China Hong Kong City/Royal Pacific Hotel on Canton Road.
Special Attractions:
1. Every Sunday afternoon between 2:30 PM and 4:30 PM the Sculpture Walk, becomes “Kung Fu Corner” where there are free demonstrations of martial arts and lion and dragon dancing.
2. Also on Sundays and public holidays an Arts Fun Fair operates from 1:00 PM until 7:00 PM at the Loggia with about 30 stalls. The stalls sell handicrafts and providing arts services. Handicrafts and artworks include pottery, straw-weaving work, dough models, paper craft-work, carving work, accessories, floral artwork, sand paintings, cloth artwork and clay work. Services provided include photography, painting, calligraphy, silhouette cutting and sketching or caricature.
3. Every Friday, there is a guided tour inside the park for Bird Watching. The tour is conducted between 7:30 AM to 9:30 AM and it is free of cost. The Arcade of the Kowloon Park is the meeting point for the tour.
hi there! I would like to know your review about hostels in chungking mansion. Is it safe for a female solo traveller like me? I’ve read a lot of negative comments about chungking mansion and those comments really scare me. However, the location is pretty impressive as it is very close to many good attractions in hong kong. If you think chungking mansion is not safe for me, how about mirador mansion? which one is the best in terms of facilities and also safety? Do you have any other suggestions for accomodation?
Hi, Chungking and Mirador Mansions are just like a small city within their buildings. They have the cheapest available guesthouses and hostels in Hong Kong. But, in those guesthouses, the rooms are so small that the bed feels like a train berth. So, a typical single room has a 2 feet wide and 6 feet lengthy bed, and the bathroom size is 4 feet by 4 feet you can say. From a backpacker’s point of view, I only need a clean place to sleep in the night, so that size of room is Okay for me at the destination like HK. Three nights later, I changed my guest house and with the same price, I got a proper single room with a common bathroom outside. So, it was a good deal. If you only need a place to sleep, then no harm at Chungking or Mirador. But if you need a window, proper air ventilation or room with outside view, then better to avoid them. Another thing is the safety. If you book rooms at first three floors, then it’s good, otherwise, in case of any mishappening (like Fire), you are trapped inside. No way to escape out. One more problem is the escalators. Expect to wait for longer duration to use escalators. There is a long queue always. I think, now, you can decide on yourself. But, if your only concern is female solo traveller, then it is not so bad from personal safety point of view. The only problem is that they are too much congested.
i will be travelling to Hong Kong and Macau and i am a solo Traveller,i thought of staying in Chungking Mansions which has lot of Hostels,i shortlisted Ashoka Hostel and while reading ur articles i came across UK hostel,could you tell me about the Hostel,and i am a pure vegetarian,would appreciate if u write about the Avaliability of Indian food in these places which will a great help for the Travellers.
Hi, Chungking Mansion is a big multi-storey building with hundreds of hostels/guest houses. Many of them have a single room in the size of 7 by 4 feet space plus a small toilet cum bathroom. The typical charges for these rooms are around INR 2000 per night for single room. Sometimes, with a shared bathroom, you may get a standard size single room without AC. I didn’t have the idea of hostel dormitory that time, so I didn’t try them. But, in my opinion now, they are the best budget places to stay. Charges for dorm beds will be lesser. Since, I am a non-vegetarian, I really don’t have any idea about vegetarian foods availability. However, there are lot of Indian and Pakistani Restaurant inside the Chungking Mansion, where you can try for veg food. Have a nice trip.
Thanks a lot,
why can’t i follow ur blog??? so that we can read each other regularly without seeing indiblog !!!
and yeah…again a beautiful post.
anu
Finally u find the way to follow this blog on FB..Thanks for following it. 🙂
What a beautiful park. Seems to be a must see in Hong Kong. Lovely pics – I loved the flamingos photo the best!
wow! That does sound like an interesting place to visit..