I am very fortunate to be able to travel as much as I do, but when I am away from home I miss my gardens and daily contact with my plants. I miss them in the same way I miss my family and friends. I like to imagine they notice my absence too, although frequently I think they quite enjoy the temporary lack of interference (that applies to all the of the above!)
Thankfully I can’t name anywhere I’ve travelled where I have not been able to seek out a garden or green space in which to relax, contemplate and reacquaint myself with nature. The plants may sometimes be unfamiliar, but I feel we speak the same language.
For the last three weeks I’ve been in Hong Kong and China on business. Hong Kong is not quite the urban jungle that some people imagine, indeed it’s surrounded by forested hills which are rarely far from view. Hong Kong supports extraordinary biodiversity which never fails to surprise and delight me. Yet in the city centre, hemmed in by soaring tower blocks, the natural world can sometimes feel very distant.
Kowloon Park, in the buzzing shopping and hotel district of Tsimshatsui (TST), is a truly urban oasis, doing for Hong Kong what Central Park does for New York and Hyde Park does for London. It’s a green lung, providing clean air and breathing space for a population of millions. At the heart of this cosmopolitan city Kowloon Park must be many things to many people: at any given time you might come across young athletes training or elderly ladies practicing Tai Chi; professors writing books or students studying them; tourists taking selfies or locals taking a nap on a park bench. It’s a great place to sit and watch the world go by; a place where one can get a real flavour of modern-day Hong Kong.
Despite having stayed at a number of hotels around the perimeter, I had never set foot in Kowloon Park until this week. Being slightly elevated from the surrounding streets and bounded by magnificent camphor and Chinese banyan trees (Ficus microcarpa) it is not a park that naturally invites you in. Yet once inside the scale and quality of the space is more apparent, extending over 33 acres and laid out on varied levels. There is a sculpture garden (28, below), a splendid aviary (19), a traditional Chinese landscape garden (20), a ‘woodland walk’ replete with pines and azaleas (36), bird lake (23) and, horror of horrors, a branch of McDonalds. The swimming pool complex (8) is the most extensive and well used in Hong Kong.
Opened to the public in 1970, Kowloon Park was originally the site of the British Army’s Whitfield Barracks. The barrack buildings now house the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre. Between 1987 and 1989 the park was renovated and greatly extended at a cost equivalent to £30M.
The current layout is unashamedly municipal, with some fairly crude hard landscaping details in places. Quite rightly the park is designed to accommodate a lot of visitors and to cope with the ensuing wear and tear. The Leisure and Cultural Services Department have adopted a particularly zealous approach to protecting the public from falling up or down steps. This made me smile as in mainland China very little regard is paid to health and safety. It seems Hong Kong wishes to make very sure it is setting a gold standard.
These nasty, oddly photogenic details do not detract because the planting is so exuberant. Everywhere you look there is lush greenery, colourful blossom and delicious shade cast by glorious mature trees, including foxglove trees (Paulownia fortunei), Lebbeck (Albizia lebbeck) and Queen’s crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia speciosa). Trees are generally well labelled, but being a public park the rest of the planting is planned with ornament rather than botany in mind. Standards of maintenance are high, which is something I always appreciate.
Of all the spaces in Kowloon Park, the Chinese Garden is perhaps the most tranquil, situated in a gentle depression and enveloped by a quiet cloister. It’s here that I found a few precious moments to sit and compose myself before returning to the hotel to pack my bags. It had been a long trip and I had missed communing with nature. Here, surrounded by sculpted greens and the happy sound of birds singing, I found a home from home on the other side of the world.
Situated in the centre of Tsimshatsui, Kowloon Park is easily accessible by bus or MTR (Hong Kong’s underground mass transit system): Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station A1 exit or Jordan MTR Station C1 exit. The Park is open from 5am to midnight daily. Bird watchers meet between 7.30am and 9.30am on Fridays near the bird lake.
Categories: Flowers, Foliage, Landscape Design, Parks, Photography, Travel, Tropical Gardens
Gorgeous – lucky you indeed. Thanks for sharing
You are welcome Candy 🙂
I know what you mean about missing your garden. I cannot bear to leave ours during the summer, even in the care of someone I trust. But we, your followers benefit from your separation! It is a treat to see what you are visiting;on the other side of the world; a more personal sort of travelogue. Sights that the official tourist web
shots do not offer. . .
Thank you. I must say there is not a great deal written about Kowloon Park despite it being a very fine open space. I even found that many of my Hong Kong colleagues had not visited for a number of years and I was pleasantly surprised by how peaceful it was.
I am tackling both gardens this weekend but they need a lot of TLC!
Now I know they are camphor, that’s interesting! Their essential oil is good for respiratory system. Happy to learn something new.
Such an enticing write up Dan. I have been travelling regularly to HK for more than 30 years, and yes I am back in the Qantas lounge again on my way back to Guangzhou right now, and I have only visited this park once, many years ago. You have tempted me, with the beautiful willow pattern image last week and now some lovely foliage shots! Those flamingos just don’t look quite right in this scenario do they? !!! Thx for sharing. You write the best and most descriptive prose. H from Oz.
Gosh Helen, back so soon! You are properly jet-set 🙂 I am about to head out and start planting some more bulbs. It’s so mild that nothing is dying down yet here. Have a good flight and a successful trip. D X
I will never visit Hong Kong but feel like I’ve peeked through a lovely window by way of your beautiful photos and wonderful commentary. The pink flamingoes were a perfect way to end the post. I thank you for the opportunity to tag along on your wonderful gardening adventures at home and abroad. 🙂 I have the package ready to go if you would drop me a quick email (contact page on blog). Good luck with your bulbs.
The flamingos were fun, but I liked the parrots in the aviary even better. It was definitely a 5 star aviary, beautifully maintained with a shaded walkway around the perimeter. I planted about 300 bulbs today, I have roughly the same number to plant next weekend. I do make work for myself!!
I like your description of the park as a green lung. Interestingly, though, the park was not planed with the city, but is repurposed. I saw this on the internet when I was trying to discover what the name “Kowloon” might mean. No luck on that point.
Your are quite right, Kowloon’s park was never planned. In Chinese, the Kowloon peninsula’s name is Gow Lung, meaning “Nine Dragons”. The name is thought to have been coined by Emperor Ping, one of two boy-emperors of the Sung Dynasty whose court fled to Hong Kong eight centuries ago. Dan
Is there a waft of camphor as one walks beneath the trees? It would be comforting on a warm (and humid!) day.
Not that I could discern. Perhaps too many other competing scents. I will pay more attention on my next visit!
I’ve spent most of the last 18 years in HK. 40% of HK is country park. In the city itself there are several good parks. Kowloon Park is good for birds as well as plants. The challenge for HK is to stop the government ruining it. It’s an uphill battle. If it’s green and even remotely flat they want to rezone it for ‘sympathetic’ development or ‘trashing it’ as I would describe it. Enjoy our greenery while you can.
What a pity. I have heard similar reports from friends and colleagues in Hong Kong. All very short-sighted, but seems a similar tale the world over. I believe a balance can be achieved, but in this case it sounds like the developers have the upper hand. I intend to experience more of Hong Kong’s wild side on my next visit 🙂
Looks a great place to round off your latest trip thanks for sharing!
Those camphor trees, wow! I wonder how old they are, just amazing. Did you sniff them?
I have sniffed other camphor trees, but not these ones. They were not very accessible! Such a beautiful spreading canopy though.
Thank you very much for sharing this! It is interesting to know and it looks wonderful. Beautiful pictures too! I would love to travel there one time.
Could feel welcoming shade of the grand camphor trees and the green under story was relief from the competing advertising on other side of street. A monster camphor fills the sky no more than 200 metres from my home and I am regularly cutting down/digging out seedlings. It is a pest tree in this area (south east coastal Queensland)as it marches along creeks pushing aside the native growth.
You have one fine blog Dan – thank you! Is Kowloon Park the one that rises steeply right from the city, along with a tram to the top (if you needed it)..? I have read about such a park.
Thank you so much Sheryl. I believe you are referring to the Botanical Gardens, which are on Hong Kong island, rather than the Kowloon side. The tram is The Peak tram, which is a funicular with incredible views and long queues!
Thank you Dan – that’s it – the Peak Tram. I must have read about it in Jan Morris’ Hong Kong book. I didn’t read about long queues!!
I so enjoyed reading about Kowloon Park. I was born and brought up in Hong Kong. It’s been 9 years since I was there. I remember the Mosque and the Army Barracks. I also remember a small park from the late 70’s though I never went in there. Your article also answered for me if there were Paulownia trees in Hong Kong! Thank you.