Adventure calls as park looks to reinvent itself

Ocean Park will reveal bidding results for its new attraction Adventure Zone in the first quarter, chairman Paulo Pong Kin-yee said yesterday.

The theme park put out to tender the development and operations of Adventure Zone, which will be in its upper reaches and offer bungee jump and zipline for thrill seekers, in March.

The attraction, along with other new zones, including a retail, dining and entertainment zone and a Wellness Zone, was proposed by the park to ease the financial burden in 2021.

It started inviting bids for the retail zone in February 2022 but not tenders.

"Business didn't start to recover until the border reopening," Pong said.

Retail and dining at the park has grown by 40 to 60 percent since the border reopening last February and the park will continue to come up with new attractions for tourists.

In the works for Lunar New Year are celebration activities that include a night parade on February 10 in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Pong said the park will keep holding conservation events, with more than 1,000 students gathering in the park yesterday to make paper from panda feces, setting a new world record.

The feat saw 350 students participating in a workshop on creating recycled paper from panda feces at the same time.

That saw them mixing a slurry of feces and pulp thoroughly, putting it through a gauze net, pressing it flat before drying it under the sun.

Primary school pupil Kandence Kam Yee-ching said she "learned there are many kinds of fibers in panda feces."

The workshop was held after more than 2,500 students and teachers from 178 schools joined Seahorse Rangers, a conservation program the park launched in September, and promised to become conservation ambassadors.

In an inauguration ceremony speech, Pong said he hopes to expand the program to make it the largest student-oriented local conservation group and attract others to join in the effort.

Program participants get a free pass for this school year on the condition they join three large-scale activities on waste reduction, low-carbon diet, and local biodiversity, as well as set up school spots at Ocean Park Conservation Carnival in July.