Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden is a bit of weird mix of some animals, gardens and walking trails in a rural part of Tai Po. Officially, they call it a conservation and education center but I’m not really sure what I’d call it. I went here a few months back with Grobbler and had an ok time but wouldn’t go back in a hurry.
If you’re visiting Hong Kong as a tourist I can’t see too many reasons to make the trip out to Kadoorie Farm unless you’re really, absolutely struggling for things to do. It’s a ways out and not that easily accessible especially if you’re using public transport. If you live in Hong Kong and have kids, like a lot of things in Hong Kong, it’s probably worth a visit once but unless you live nearby, you’re not going to be rushing back to Kadoorie Farm every weekend, every month, or even every year.
If you drive there, make sure to call ahead the day before (or earlier) to reserve a car park spot, otherwise there’s nowhere to park, quite literally. Grobbler and I showed up on weekday and just walked in but weekends I don’t think you’d have a chance to just walk in and expect to get a park. There’s only about 10 available. You need to park temporarily, go up to the reception, pay a deposit and get a key to unlock the concrete posts that are blocking each park.
Previously, you could apply for a driving permit to drive into and throughout Kadoorie Farm but just this month (October 2017) they’ve stopped that. You can get a minibus to the top and walk down but it stops for 15 minutes at each stop along the way. Most people do that but if you’re not there early you’ll end up having to walk up to the top, which is not that bad as there’s a few things to see along the way.
As far as animals go, there’s a reptile house with some lizards in it, some pigs, and well that’s about it. Make no mistake, Kadoorie Farm isn’t a zoo. There’s a parrot sanctuary, raptor roost, monkey haven, a wildlife pond and a few other exhibits but they’re rather small and unspectacular. You’ve got to bite your tongue and pretend things are way better than they are if you have kids otherwise they’ll be bored. Because it’s at the bottom of Tai Mo Shan there’s some wild animals roaming around but not many.
We tried our very best to find some snakes but even venturing far into some wild tracks we didn’t come across any. Kadoorie Farm seems to be popular with older folks and some school trips. Because of it’s location, it’s not that popular, and because it’s rather large, even if you get a few bus loads of kids, it shouldn’t be too bad. Like I said, Kadoorie Farm is worth a visit when you’ve done all the major attractions and have run out of things to do with kids in the weekend, but you’re not going to have your socks blown off by visiting here.
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