Copyright hongkongfp
Welcome back to HKFP Monitor. This week, with Ocean Park announcing that its water park is still in the red, we look at why it might pull the plug on Water World. Meanwhile, news related to the “patriots only” Legislative Council dominated the headlines this week: lawmakers serving the 2022-25 term wrapped up their final day on Thursday, while the nomination period for the December elections kicked off on Friday. Legislator Regina Ip remains mum on her intention to run, while a surprise name – Olympic fencer Vivian Kong – has entered the chat. | WATER WORLD WOES Ocean Park’s Water World opened only four years ago – but things may already be drying up. The city’s oldest operating theme park recorded a deficit of HK$274.4 million in the year leading up to June 30, according to its annual financial statements on Thursday. The figure was attributed to higher expenses such as depreciation, as well as losses from the Water World attraction. While the main park recorded a surplus from operations, Water World saw a deficit of HK$148.3 million. Ocean Park Corporation chairperson Paulo Pong said on Thursday that he would not rule out shutting down Water World. The park has already tried pricing adjustments and hosting events, such as DJ nights, but attendance has still been subpar. How did we get here? Water World had its work cut out when it opened in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, following years of delays. The attraction, a bus ride away from Ocean Park, was billed as an “all-weather wonderland” that is the first in Asia with ocean views. It was, and still is, the only water park in Hong Kong. But Hong Kong’s strict Covid-19 rules forced on-and-off closures at Ocean Park, and tourism has not rebounded to the same pre-pandemic numbers. What else went wrong? Lower attendance during the cooler months was among the “many operational challenges,” Ocean Park conceded in its report to the Legislative Council, which accompanied the financial statements. Water World took a break from mid-October last year to mid-May this year to cut costs, and it’s doing the same this year. In fact, Water World has been closed since October 15. According to Ocean Park, Water World faces competition from water parks in the Greater Bay Area. The park does not name names, but it has its fair share of rivals, from Chimelong Water Park in Guangzhou to Studio City Water Park in Macau. How is Ocean Park doing overall? Revenue and visitor count grew for the fourth consecutive year, the park said, attributing the increase to a rebound in tourism and the “panda effect.” The park is now home to six giant pandas, following the birth of panda twins in August 2024 and Beijing’s gift of two giant pandas to Hong Kong a month later. Last year, pandas were at the core of the government’s tourism campaigns, with authorities saying that the giant panda family would “serve as Hong Kong’s tourism ambassadors.” The headaches continue despite a HK$2 million taxpayer bailout in 2021. | ALL EYES ON IP… & AN EX-OLYMPIC FENCER? With 23 lawmakers so far declaring their intention not to run in the “patriots only” legislative race in December, all eyes are now on legislator Regina Ip’s New People’s Party (NPP). The party has six seats in the Legislative Council (LegCo). The attention comes amid rumours that those aged 70 and above, and who have been too outspoken in the legislature, will be barred from running. Ip and Lai Tung-kwok, another NPP lawmaker, are 75 and 73, respectively. They are the last two septuagenarian lawmakers who have not announced their intention. The NPP is also the sole party that voted in favour of the government-sponsored same-sex partnerships proposal last month, which was the only bill that failed to pass in the four-year LegCo term. Earlier this month, reporters who asked Ip in LegCo if she would run again were met with a snappy response: “Don’t stop me from going to my meeting! Back off!” This week, two other more outspoken lawmakers – Michael Tien, 75, and Doreen Kong, 55 – said they would not stand in the race. Talk about incumbent lawmakers has naturally dominated discussions about LegCo contenders. But in recent days, a new name cropped up: Hong Kong fencer Vivian Kong. Local media reported that Kong, who won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics last year before retiring from professional fencing, intends to run in the elections. She is said to be eyeing a seat in the New Territories North constituency. Kong’s alleged pro-establishment ties are well known. She has participated in events organised by the Security Bureau, and in September, she attended Beijing’s grand military parade. The former professional fencer now works at the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s corporate affairs division. A representative for the club said they had not been made aware of any related news. | STATE MEDIA MONITOR LegCo out: State-backed media heaped praise on the outgoing LegCo as its four-year term concluded this week. Ta Kung Pao’s front-page splash on Thursday featured an interview with the legislature’s president, Andrew Leung, who told the newspaper that the “report card” for this LegCo term was “extremely beautiful.” Bill debates seemed to be quick because there were no more instances of filibustering and lawmakers “asking questions for the sake of asking,” he said. Ta Kung Pao also highlighted key figures relating to the LegCo term in a handy numbers factsheet on the front page. Lawmakers held 135 meetings totalling 1,246 hours, passed 124 bills proposed by the government, and posed 1,890 written questions to officials. National Games countdown: Sister paper Wen Wei Po counted down the days to the National Games in a two-page splash on Thursday. The Games kick off on November 9, but some events begin prior to the official start date, with beach volleyball – the first event – starting on Friday next week. The Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong’s executive director Fanny Yeung told Wen Wei Po that the Games are expected to attract over 100,000 visitors to the city, including athletes, officials, and spectators. Yu Fangming, who oversees the National Games’ merchandise sales, said there were long queues at merch shops in places such as West Kowloon Station and Kai Tak Stadium. He expected merch sales to double, adding that the most popular items were mascot plush toys and “blind boxes,” Wen Wei Po reported. | SOCIAL MEDIA MONITOR Final farewell?: Lawmaker Regina Ip’s Instagram posts often attract considerable buzz, whether it’s wishing a Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, a Happy Diwali, or learning how to make claypot rice. Her photo on Wednesday of party lawmakers, captioned “Possibly the last photo of all six legislators from New People’s Party taken in the Legislative Council chamber this term,” was no exception. She also responded to comments, writing: “I will not leave you all” and “I will serve citizens until I return to dust.” Life reflections: In other news, former pro-democracy district councillor Tiffany Yuen, who was released from jail in August, published a heartfelt Instagram post about feeling lost as she adjusts to life as a free person. Yuen served more than four years in prison after being convicted of conspiring to commit subversion for participating in an unofficial primary election in 2020. In her Instagram post, she said people had been sending their regards to her and asking how she was feeling, or what plans she had. Those questions made her reflect seriously about her own state of mind and what she had in store, Yuen wrote. “I’m trying hard every day to eat, to see friends and to rest. I hope that I can return to normal life as soon as possible. As long as everything is normal, that in itself would be my greatest asset,” her Chinese post read. “But actually, it’s hard, it’s extremely hard,” she wrote. She said that at 32 years of age, she had yet to begin her career path – or perhaps, she began it early, and it ended early too. “The world is cruel to all of us. How much resilience do we still have left to coexist with those inexplicable fears and anxieties? Sometimes, all we can do is post a random, emo message to mark these not-so-OK moments,” she wrote. | HKFP PHOTO OF THE WEEK Sax energy: Move over, Bill Clinton. Hong Kong lawmaker Lo Wak-kwok busted out a jewel-studded saxophone on the last day of the LegCo term on Thursday. The 71-year-old, who represents the engineering sector, announced last week that he would not run in the “patriots only” elections in December. Lo played “Blessings and Adversities,” a 1980s song by Cantopop star Paula Tsui. He said that the LegCo term had weathered “highs and lows, blessings and adversities, and the turmoil of the black riots.” | BEST OF THE REST The Guardian: The Beijing courier who went viral: how Hu Anyan wrote about delivering parcels – and became a bestseller New York Times: He’s Never Been to America. But in China, He’s Trump. CNN: In Hong Kong, domestic workers must walk a precarious tightrope. One stumble can be disastrous AP: Read what a Chinese officer wrote of D-Day in his diary salvaged in Hong Kong
