The imposing new building across the narrow sea straits from Coloane is the Chimelong Hengqin Bay Hotel and its Ocean Kingdom. Some architect friends had told me how “amazing” it is, “you really must go”, so I excitedly went to see for myself. Once over the Lotus Bridge and through immigration transport availability has improved greatly over the last 12 months, with many more taxis and buses – though no clear signs could be seen in Chinese or English for a shuttle bus service to the hotel. We opted for a taxi, negotiating a starting fare from Rmb 50 to Rmb 30.
On the 10 minute journey to the hotel we asked the taxi driver about a complex of quite smart high rise apartments and whether they were for sale. He explained that they’re homes provided to those who had lost their land in the development process of Hengqin. But he understood that the buildings are riddled with problems because the foundations were for 10 storeys and the final building in excess of 20 storeys ….
Soon we are passing under a Welcome arch into the Chimelong complex and in the distance the multi-turreted hotel building. Drawing up to the entrance, surveying close up the turrets on top of which I think is supposed to be flames, surrounded on each corner by large green plaster cast models of flattened flying fish. Then up towards the lobby past vast life-sized green models of walruses spouting water. Inside, either side, enormous snaking queues of families trying to check in and cordoned off expanses of suitcases of those checked out but not yet left.
The central part of the lobby is dominated by 4 giant dolphins, vastly out of proportion, with their tails reaching for the towering ceiling, and in the centre a glob of flaming orange and red blown glass (by famed artist Dale Chihuly … or a copy I wondered?). Fish and flames? I just didn’t get it!
Garish décor everywhere, with no cohesive theme. Dog-eared taxidermy – so passé even in the ‘70s – of a giraffe, a zebra, a couple of monkeys and a sad, emaciated white tiger at the entrance to Amazon Jungle diner (do they have zebras in the Amazon?)
Give credit where credit’s due, 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. The swimming pool complex with four or five cabanas looks suspiciously like that of the Galaxy Macau. The ‘boardwalk’ iron fencing along the coastline already dribbling rust down the pillars.
Dim sum lunch in the Seaview Chinese restaurant. No sea view as we sat too low, and in any case it was blocked off with numerous pillars topped with the head and shoulders of more green walruses. Let’s face it, walruses are not the most beautiful of beasts, but having scores of them leering down at one, just hideous, is enough to put one off one’s meal.
We had planned 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’. Uncountable numbers of young ticketing staff guide arrivals to buy their tickets, Rmb 350, and then an efficient entry system with bar codes on the tickets enabling you to go through turn styles. Through an avenue of techni-colour big screen fish overhead and we are in the Kingdom.
First stop the whale shark aquarium – no chance, queues for a mile. Next we tried the Beluga whale exhibit, a pod of 5 or so Beluga whales – aimlessly swimming up and down, having to put up with the crowds tapping on the glass and – inspite of notices prohibiting flash photography, parents egging their children on to flash away in the darkness.
On to the Polar Horizon. Concrete mountains, fake snow caps painted white. Past the brown bear enclosure, a pitiful, distressing sight of thin creatures with matted hair, claws so long that they curl upwards making walking difficult through piles of their own excrement. One swaying its head continuously from left to right, another pacing up and down, a third stamping (dancing?) its front paws left, right, left, right, then doing a bow, not facing the crowds but facing a rock. Repetitive actions of stressed, miserable animals. Nothing to stimulate them, no games, no climbing apparatus. No staff to control the clapping, jeering throngs. An occasional chicken bone being thrown in for fun.
Through a tunnel and 3 sad-looking polar bears cooped up in small glass enclosures. Signs proudly stating that a polar bear can smell a seal from 23 kilometers away; what good are such fine-tuned instincts to these wild animals pacing up and down in such tight cruel confines. Their distress is unimaginable.
Through another tunnel, 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 the lingering stench of fox and bear urine. This is not even the start of Summer – heavens help what the smells will be like in a couple of months.
We catch the Rmb 3 bus ride back to the Lotus Bridge driving past a huge oval building that we understand is to be a circus. More miserable animals to be brought in to please the crowds. Humanity really hasn’t come very far from the days of the Roman amphitheatres …..
Unlimited fun and joy? I beg to differ.
