Visitors to Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park will soon be able to glide across the corals in a glass-bottomed boat, the highlight of a $38 million marine conservation and education centre which the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club has agreed to fund.
World Wide Fund for Nature Hong Kong (WWF) will create an eco-interactive complex. This will feature daylight reversal tanks showing normally nocturnal marine life, touch pools visitors can delve into, rock pools with floating magnifying glasses and an exhibition of coastal habitats.
The complex will be constructed on stilts over the water at Hoi Ha Wan which was designated a marine park along with Yan Chau Tong yesterday. Cape D'Aguilar was declared a marine reserve.
Hoi Ha Wan, a 260-hectare bay in Sai Kung West Country Park harbours 39 of Hong Kong's 49 coral species and will be the focus of WWF marine conservation, education and research.
Jockey Club spokesman Leo Kwan Shu-ching said the Charities Board approved the grant, the biggest the WWF had ever received.
The complex will open in 1998.