june 4th

Hong Kong Zoological and botanical gardens

I have made a list of things I want to get to while I'm here in Hong Kong. Today I knocked two of them off my list. 

I meandered over to the HK Zoological and Botanical Garden in the Central District. This beautiful area of HK Island has some of the more interesting plants and animals collectively in South East Asia. The HK is one of the oldest zoological and botanical centers in the world. It occupies 14 acres at the bottom part of Victoria Peak, North East of LKF, the party central of HK. It was founded in 1871, but first staged animals and plants to the public in 1864.

These captive animals at the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens are not protected the legislation that protects from animal cruelty an abuse. The law instated at this time is from the 1970s, when animal were treated with inhumane drugs and small living quarters. 

Hong Kong is far behind Europe, the United States, Australia and Taiwan when it comes to forcing zoo managers to ensure the animals' needs are met.

Hopefully this trend changes in the next few years. The way the animals were treated here was hard to look at. 

victoria peak

After the Botanical Gardens, I headed to the tram that took me up the mountain to Victoria Peak. There I paid a $28HKD ticket to ride it. 

The view from the tram car.

Once I got to the top, I started walking toward the opposite side of Victoria Peak. I had heard about the views and wanted to see them while the sun was still up. 

The other side of Victoria Peak away from the city. Lamma Island is off in the distance. 

As the sun was going down, I headed to the city side of Victoria Peak. 

The city during the day from Victoria Peak.

My goal for the day was to take a day time picture of the city and a night time picture. I waited 1.5 hours until the sun went down to take this next one.

The city at night from Victoria Peak.