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Chimelong Hengqin Bay Hotel
A 300,000 square-metre resort-style property typical of that found in Las Vegas or Macau – minus the gambling – Chimelong Henqin Bay Hotel opened together with Ocean Kingdom on 18 January. Designed by WATG, a
colour-changing centrepiece is surrounded by floor-to-ceiling dolphin statues in the show- stopping lobby. The 1,888 guests room are spread over 21 floors and two wings, the Seahorse Wing and Dolphin Wing. There's also a club floor on level 18, above which is the residential floor – Mr Su's private residence when he's in town. Guest rooms offer either a sea view or view out towards the park.
Chinese, Western and other Asian cuisine is offered in the on-site dining facilities including two buffet restaurants featuring aquarium exhibits. A selection of shops link the Dolphin Wing wing to the hotel's conference and meeting facilities including two luxury ballrooms. Outside of the hotel a dolphin pool, swimming pool and artificial beach are surrounded by impressive landscaping, while an indoor waterpark is currently under construction. A 1km-long canal links the hotel to the park, with a water taxi available to shuttle guests back and forth for a small fee, although most choose to walk.
BELOW: The hotel’s stunning lobby by WATG
Chimelong has garnered over many years with its popular circus productions in Guangzhou, the fast- paced production features acrobatics, clowning and various animal acts including show-jumping poodles, a boxing kangaroo and stunt-walking chimpanzees. Whatever your view on performing animals, the Chinese audience in the show we watched loved it. Cross reflects on the experience of this, PGAV's first complete theme park in China: “We are known as being a partner on projects from beginning to end, concept design through construction administration and beyond, which meant more than four years of late night Skype calls and weeklong jet lag for the design team. It was a test in life-planning. On the positive side, the artistic production exceeded our expectations. We spent far less time than we thought we might have to ensuring that our expectations would be met. To a large extent this is a result of Chimelong adding some talented key people.” Perhaps some of that talent could be attributed to the company's passion for the amusement and hospitality business, which Mr Su and his team have embraced fully over the years sice starting out back in 1989 with a restaurant in Guangzhou. “I am not saying which approach is right and which is wrong, but Chimelong is the only corporation in this field in China whose bread and butter is tourism,” highlights Sze. “All the other major operators have other businesses. The expansion in Zhuhai has therefore been done out of love for the industry as well for the strategic growth of the company.”
Room to grow
Ocean Kingdom's projected annual attendance is between 4 and 5 million. For comparison, Ocean Park and Hong Kong Disneyland get just short of 7.5 each, while nearby mainland attractions including Chimelong Paradise and OCT's various parks in Shenzhen get between 3 and 4.5 million. Sze says business in Zhuhai has got off to an encouraging start, but the resort is expected to perform much better once all the surrounding infrastructure is in place and it can reach out to a wider audience: “I think in the southern part of China, our brand is quite well known, but once they finish more roads and other transport links we will do more promotion in the national media.”
In total, Chimelong has 103 hectares available for development on Hengqin Island. Already under construction as part of the second phase of the resort are a 3-star and 4-star hotel, one of which wall have
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