Museum of History & Botanical Garden
One of the biggest differences travelers learn between the time we spend on the road and at home is the appreciation publicly funded parks, monuments and museums. At home, we complain our taxes are too high and our public services too few. But in a foreign country we love the government funded museums, the spacious public parks, and even taking the public transit system. Because these services are often free or priced for locals so we can stretch our dollars and travel longer, or splurge on another travel luxury. Foot massage anyone? We covered Hong Kong’s amazing transit network in our Victoria Peak article, and then the public country park hiking trails in our Lantau Island article. This time we are looking at Hong Kong’s awesome Museum of History and the Zoological & Botanical Gardens Park.
Hong Kong has many public museums and sites, see here. As a fan of history and culture, I chose to visit the fantastic Museum of History. I’m Canadian but my family is British. So naturally I grew up watching Coronation Street and every period piece TV show and movie ever made on any Royal Monarch. But oddly never anything on Hong Kong. This small territory was held by the British since 1841 until 1997, not a terribly long time in historic sense but was marked by dramatic technological and cultural evolution. Today, Hong Kong maintains it’s unique culture, a hybrid of Chinese, British with some Japanese thrown in too. Just take a look at the Zoological & Botanical Gardens just off the back doorstep of the Government House, filled with subtropical plants, birds and animal species from the east. Talk about a fusion of two worlds!
Hong Kong Museum of History
- Hours: Monday, Wednesday & Friday 10:00 am to 6:00 pm (to 7:00 pm on the Weekend)
- Fee: Free entry to the Permanent Exhibition & 10 HK ($2 USD) for entry to the Special Exhibition.
- Services: Permanent Exhibition, a special exhibition, resource center, gift shop and Café.
- Museum Official Website
Hong Kong Public Museums
- Hong Kong Science Museum
- Hong Kong Arts Museum
- Hong Kong Space Museum
- Hong Kong Museum of History
- Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb Museum
I don’t recommend exhausting yourself visiting all of them in one day, but choose a few topics that you find the most interesting. The museum of history took me 4 hours to tour from midday to closing and I would have stayed longer. It’s an enormous museum with a lot of exhibits and plaques to read. I had to skim through the exhibits on the opium wars, the section I was most excited to see having read so much about it, because I was running out of time. In hindsight I should have gotten an early start to my museum day.
The problem is having too many great galleries! From the natural environment, to prehistoric ages, the Han to Qing Dynasties, Opium Wars, Japanese Occupation and the return of Hong Kong to China! Plus throw in some special exhibitions, Wow! You could spend all day in there and not see everything!
Hong Kong Zoo & Botanical Gardens
- Hours: 9:00 am to 4:30 for the Gardens, Green House, and Education Exhibition Center.
- Fee: Free
- Services: Guided Visits, “Meet the Zookeepers”, Fountain Terrace Garden & Education Exhibition Center.
- Gardens Official Website
There is something exciting being a westerner visiting a tropical Botanical Garden. Northern regions have a relatively low biodiversity, pine trees and ferns everywhere. But Hong Kong is subtropical! It’s hot and humid and the plants absolutely love it! The gardens have a number of rare flower species like the Yellow Camellia and the Rose of Venezuela. You’ll also find a nice bamboo forest and themed rooms with species from around the world, all temperature controlled.
A Moral Dilemma - Visiting a Zoo
Walking to the western part of the park you’ll find the zoo area. On display are lots of animal species from Orangutans, Lemurs, Tortoises, Flamingos and dozens of birds in the bird sanctuary. It was really fun and interesting to see all these animals. Most, except for the raccoon, I had never seen up close. But I can’t help but feel that I shouldn’t be seeing them at all. Zoos are not common anymore in Canada after decades of animal rights activists and research on animals in captivity… And SeaWorld’s infamous Blackfish Killer Whale. Think of the last time you heard a circus coming to town! Times have changed in the west, but not so much in the east.
Just this last month, a tourist killed a Kangaroo with brick in a Zoo in Fuzhou, Fujian Province China. Which is horrific. And yet, I like many others take the opportunity to visit the zoo despite not really having a complete picture of how the animals are treated.
I kept wondering if you call it a Zoological Center for education purposes, does that make holding these animals in cages more acceptable than if you said ‘amusement park’? It’s a moral dilemma you may also face upon your visit, or not. I was torn between the enjoyment of seeing these animals and the knowledge of the abuses that occur in Zoos every year on top of the fact it’s essentially incarcerating wild animals for life.
It’s a moral question I will no doubt ask myself time again and again in my travels. Whether it’s going on an elephant ride in Cambodia or to the Bronx Zoo in New York. I recently visited the zoo in Havana and saw children taunting the poor macaques. I realize zoologist can do amazing work for these animals, even saving some species from extinction. My own sister is an ornithologist, she studies birds. But just writing ‘on display’ feels wrong and it’s a feeling I can’t shake no matter how much enjoyment I got out of my visit.
Getting Around in Hong Kong
Directions from Central Station to the Museum of History
- From Central Station on Hong Kong Island, take the Tsuen Wan Line
- After 6 Minutes, arrive at Tsim Sha Tsui Station.
- Walk 10 minutes North-East to the Museum on Chatham Rd.
- The Science Museum is next door, can’t miss it!
0 Comments