The property that is on many people’s minds in Macau these days is the imposing new building across the narrow sea straits from Coloane, the Chimelong Hengqin Bay Hotel and its Ocean Kingdom. Some architect friends had told me how “amazing” it is, “you really must go”, so on a recent weekend I excitedly went to see for myself.
After a 10-minute journey from Lotus Bridge, we are soon drawing up to the entrance past vast life-sized green models of walruses spouting water. The central part of the lobby is dominated by four giant dolphins, their tails reaching for the towering ceiling, and in the centre a ball of flaming orange and red blown glass. Fish and flames? I didn’t really get it.
Give credit where credit’s due though, a huge amount of effort and money has been put into the landscaping around the hotel and there are pleasant garden paths lined with lovely trees, shrubs and flowers interspersed with patches of lawn.
We decide to go to the much talked about Ocean Kingdom, a 15-minute walk or a shuttle bus ride from the hotel. The promo material promises ‘unlimited fun and joy’.
First stop, the whale shark aquarium – no chance, queues for a mile. Next we tried the Beluga whale exhibit, where we find a pod of five or so Beluga whales swimming up and down, having to put up with the crowds tapping on the glass. Despite notices prohibiting flash photography, parents nonetheless egg their children on to flash away in the darkness.
On to the brown bear enclosure, a distressing sight of thin creatures with matted hair and claws so long that they curl upwards making it difficult for them to walk. One sways its head continuously from left to right, another paces up and down, a third stamps (dances?) its front paws left, right, left, right, then does a bow, not facing the crowds but facing a rock.
Through a tunnel and three sad-looking polar bears cooped up in small glass enclosures.
Through another tunnel and we come to the arctic foxes, with tufts of their white molting hair on the floor – does this mean that the temperatures are not sufficiently cold for them?
We breathe a sigh of relief as we leave and catch the 3RMB bus ride back to the Lotus Bridge, driving past a huge oval building that we understand is to be a circus. More animals to be brought in to please the crowds? Unlimited fun and joy? I beg to differ.
