Wetland Park

A few months ago, PNGF and I tried to visit the Wetland Park in Hong Kong. The park is tucked into a far corner of Hong Kong, so by the time we got there, it was closed already! Arg.

No worries... this time, not only am I waking up at 8am to go there, but I also have the architect himself (A very cool Raymond Fung) do the tour.


Having the architect lead the tour is a very different experience. For example, we learned that the bricks used outside the park have come from all over Hong Kong - part of old buildings that were demolished and the bricks just laid in the basement of some government.

In front of the park is a large piece of lawn. Raymond explains that he wanted it green, but the grass doesn't survive very well when people step on it... so they settled for a grass with yellow flowers that could be stepped on and survive. Good to know.

Lady taking care of the lawn

Much of the wetland park is outside of the building and on a natural trail. We, however, spent more time in the building. It's more like a natural history museum for wetlands... It really is a museum, except that they couldn't call it a museum because by doing so it would fall under the jurisdiction of a museum body, which they didn't want. Some government shit I never understood. Anyway, so they are called a park. Not called a museum. Fascinating exhibits and surprisingly high tech.

It was a nice and cool day out as well... so we did plenty of walking around as well. Bird viewing (another post), learning about the vegetation (no time for the architect!), etc etc.

Highly recommended for Hong Kong people. It's a nice day out from the city to learn about something useful. (Oh and nearby Tuen Mun has some excellent food!)

Water lily

Behind the wetland park building is the not-so-friendly Tian Shui Wai - a truly concrete place