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Thursday, November 3, 2011

Travel Tales – Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens

 

A Halloween Welcome to the Gardens!

Travel Tales is what I have decided to call the series of posts I have planned, to share some photos from our recent travels to Asia to visit our eldest daughter. I hope those of you coming here to read about Italy will not mind too much if I diversify with these articles as it is at the request of some of my readers, that I share our experiences here. I am hoping you will enjoy them!

The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens were one of our favourite places on our first visit to Hong Kong last year, so it was somewhere we decided to revisit very early on in our trip this time. It is such a surprising oasis of peace right in the city centre amongst all the skyscrapers. We did not spend much time there this visit as we had a couple of other destinations planned for the same day and had after all seen it all before albeit at a different time of the year. Although if I lived in Hong Kong I would certainly spend many happy hours there with my camera, there is so much to see. If you want to see more photographs of the Gardens taken last Spring you are welcome to peruse my Flickr Album  China 2010 - Hong Kong Volume 4

The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens ( 香港動植物公園) is one of the oldest zoological and botanical centres in the world. It occupies an area of 5.6 hectares at Mid-levels, on the northern slope of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong. Founded in 1871, its first stage had been opened to the public in 1864. The Zoological part of the name was in fact only added in 1975 when the Gardens were renamed to reflect the increased number of zoological exhibits.

The park was previously named Bing Tau Fa Yuen (「兵頭花園」) "Bing Tau" literally means "the head of the soldiers" or the "Commander-in-Chief". Some said it was named such way by the Chinese because it was once the private garden of the governor. Other said Bing Tau was just the phonetic transliteration of the first two syllables of the word botanical.

At the southern entrance to the gardens, at Upper Albert Road, is a memorial arch dedicated to the Chinese who died assisting the Allies during the two World Wars. The inscription on the lintel reads: "In Memory of the Chinese who died loyal to the Allied cause in the Wars of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945". The granite arch in the shape of a paifang was erected in 1928. Reference to the Second World War was added later.

Memorial Arch

By far the easiest way of letting you view a large selection of photos easily is by producing some collages, the photos can be viewed individually in larger format in my Flickr Album by those of you interested in more detail. Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens

 

The photograph in the middle of this second collage is a bronze statue of King George VI which was erected in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of British colonial rule over Hong Kong (1841–1941).

More can be learnt about The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens by visiting Wikipedia and the Official Website.

The complete set of my photos can be viewed in the Flickr Album Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens

24 comments:

  1. Great post. This brings back many memories of a lovely holiday for me. I loved Hong Kong but I could never live there - too many people!!! Diane

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  2. It sounds like a wonderful trip. Beautiful photos, the flowers are truly stunning.

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  3. Wow, what beautiful photos. Hong Kong is a world away from me. I bet you were so excited to visit your daughter.

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  4. Thanks for sharing this with us. How fortunate you are to be able to travel like this. AS a fairly new reader, I don't know how your daughter ended up in Hong Kong/Asia. Is it too personal to ask? Did she get her wanderlust from her parents?

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  5. what a wonderful trip to see your daughter,, I have had awful blogging troubles and have missed my visits with you so much, I had tostart a new blog,, its linked from old one, I would love if you would follow me at my new one,, your photos are amazing.

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  6. Firstly, welcome back! I am a little late in getting here, since life has been very busy and I have fallen far behind with blogging. I am thrilled to see your beautiful pictures. The first one is particularly lovely. The trees framed by the monument arch are absolutely breathtaking. I will be visiting your Flicker pages as soon as time permits!

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  7. What a great way to show-case your pics Lindy - I love the collages with the beautiful selection of plant life. Yhe orchids are exquisite!
    Have a safe and enjoyable week-end.

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  8. That arch is stunning Linda. I must share this with our daughter who loves all things Asian. She plans to go to South Korea to teach and will begin to learn Korean in January.

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  9. I love the Halloween decorations at the zoo! And I can't wait to see the rest of your pictures from Asia! Welcome back!

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  10. Wow, Linda, what stunning photos! Those flowers are incredible, so lush and vivid. :-) I'm so glad you're going to share posts from your trip! I've never been to that part of the world and just love seeing pictures of it. :-)

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  11. Such a wide variety of flowers on display. A perfect way to spend a day!
    Duncan In Kuantan

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  12. Oh my! Once again, gorgeous photos. Thanks for sharing your trip with us!

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  13. Of course we don't mind you sharing something new and beautiful! It makes the whole life more interesting when there's something new to learn every day. I love your pictures as usual!
    Thanks for sharing it all with us, Linda.

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  14. interesting to read, thanks for sharing it!
    Maureen

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  15. What a great place.My family and I must enjoy this place because we like such beautiful flowers. :)

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  16. Welcome back - I'm just catching up on posts. I'd love to visit Hong Kong - thanks for the taste!

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  17. Lindy... You must have had a wonderful time in Hong Kong! Wow! Everything looks so exotic! I am very familiar with orchods, as my father in law used to grow them (specialized in species) and was an international judge at shows! Some species are so tiny (the size of half a nail!) and so beautiful!

    Thank you for sharing. I hope you are happy to be back in Italy . It's a wonderful place, isn't it?

    LOVE

    ANNA
    x

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  18. I've looked forward to seeing your travel photos! This will be a wonderful series of posts! I'm off to see your Flickr album! Welcome home! What a wonderful experience you've had! ♥♥♥

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  19. Great photos. I will surely make sure we see this garden next year. We are going to China with three days in HongKong in May, 2012. I will have to peruse your China 2010 pictures. Perfect!!

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  20. Hi Linda. Welcome back. We've missed you! What stunning images in your collages. Such a variety of flowers and colours for us to see. I loved the first Halloween photo as well. Really sounds as if you had a wonderful trip :)

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  21. Wow! The HK Botanical Gardens are just a dream! Love, love this series of photos! :)

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  22. What a wonderful trip you must have had..the pictures are just lovely..Happy you are home..
    xoCarolyn

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  23. Those flowers look so exotic and beautiful! It looks like you had a great trip.

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  24. Good post. I am going to save the URL and will definitely visit again.Thanks for sharing the blog.

    Hong Kong buzz

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