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Hong Kong singer and actress Gigi Leung beamed as she walked through the new gates of Ocean Park Hong Kong.

“It’s new, it’s amazing, it’s very colorful,” she said.

A native of Hong Kong, Leung has a lot of fond memories of the park. “My parents and I always came here two or three times a year when I was a child,” the 34-year-old actress said.

But this is not the same Ocean Park from Leung’s childhood.

The park was opened by Hong Kong Governor Murray MacLehose in January 1977. The Hong Kong Jockey Club funded the construction cost of 150 million Hong Kong dollars($19 million), while the land was provided for free by the Hong Kong government.

Since then, the park has grown to become the city’s premier educational park, with about 35 attractions and rides. The park is managed by a statutory body, the Ocean Park Corporation, which was appointed by the government.

In 2008, an ambitious master redevelopment program costing $5.55 billion Hong Kong dollars began. It’s goal is to transform Ocean Park into a world-class marine-based theme park.

On Jan. 27, the new and improved Ocean Park opened its new flagship attraction, Aqua City, an event that also marked the halfway point in the park’s overall master redevelopment plan.

The opening of Aqua City also coincided with the opening of the park’s elaborate new main entrance, effectively marking the second most important milestone in the park’s history.

Aqua City, which covers a sprawling 200,000 square feet within the park’s 88.6-hectare layout, boasts three new attractions — the Grand Aquarium, the Lagoon and the Sea Life Carousel, a vibrant retail and dining area.

“The opening of Aqua City represents the birth of the new Ocean Park,” said Allan Zeman, chairman of Ocean Park.

“For over 30 years, Ocean Park has provided a great deal of joy to both Hong Kong residents and visitors from overseas,” said Donald Tsang, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

“And now the new Aqua City, featuring cutting-edge design and state-of-the-art facilities, showcases rare fish and marine creatures in one of Asia’s largest aquariums,” Tsang continued. “I believe it will be loved by children and adults alike.”

Ten thousand visitors flocked to the theme park on Aqua City’s opening day.

The Sidley family, the first visitors to walk into Aqua City, could not hide their excitement.

“It’s really impressive,” Annie Sidley said. “The kids love it. They can learn about a lot of different things and types of fish at the aquarium.”.

The Grand Aquarium, the centerpiece of Aqua City, is indeed awe-inspiring. Its egg-shaped structure, made from 244 trapezoid glass panes held together by a number of golden tentacles, lights up the park with a cobalt-blue glow that is reflected off Nam Long Shan (also known as Brick Hill).

At 5.24 million liters, the aquarium ranks as the ninth largest in the world, holding more than 5,000 marine animals and 400 different species.

“It’s a journey from the shallows to the depths,” said Suzanne Gendron, executive director of zoological operations and education at Ocean Park.

The journey at Grand Aquarium starts at a large pool surrounded with massive rock formations and a tidal flow of water that continually rises and ebbs.

“We try to simulate the sea in which these fish are found,” Gendron said.

There are also smaller glass tanks, called jewel tanks, in this area. Visitors can see live coral reefs, sea horses, sea anemones, clown fish and garden eels in the tanks.

There are also a few small pools where children are encouraged to interact with and touch marine creatures, such as sea stars and sea cucumbers.

From this area, visitors will walk into a dark cave-like tunnel, marked by screens that simulate a solar eclipse. “During a solar eclipse, all the animals will act as if it’s night,” Gendron said.

“In the tunnel, we’ve recreated a solar eclipse so that the visitors can see what the animals do at night.”

In the displays along the tunnel, visitors can see creatures from the deep such as cuttlefish and nautilus (a kind of mollusk) swimming freely to the surface, hunting for food because they believe it to be nighttime already.

“It’s not only about the fish and other marine species,” Gendron said. “We want visitors to understand the amazing adaptations and biology of the marine ecosystem.”

The highlight of the tour is the Bubble Tunnel, an enormous acrylic dome 5.5 meters in diameter, in which visitors can see gigantic manta rays, eagle rays and scalloped hammerhead sharks swimming just above their heads.

Digital interpretive panels offer guests information about the animals and their habitats throughout the aquarium.

“Fifty percent of the oxygen that we breathe comes from the plankton and phytoplankton in the ocean,” Gendron said. “So, it’s very important to keep the ocean healthy. One way to do this is through appreciation of the ocean and people connecting emotionally with sea animals.”

At the aquarium is where they store a month’s worth of food supplies for the fish in the aquarium.

“We provide 50 to 60 kilograms of food every day,” said Walter Tang Yiu Ming, the park’s assistant curator of marine exhibits.

The park imports mackerel, squid, shrimp and krill from Japan and the United States to feed the fish in the aquarium.

“They’re restaurant-quality fish,” Gendron said. “It has to be fit for human consumption before we even think of feeding it to our fish in the aquarium.”

In 2008, Ocean Park gained accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) for a second successive five-year term, making it the only animal facility outside of the Americas to earn that recognition.

“The accreditation encompasses the whole business of the park,” said Grant Abel, general curator of zoological operations and education at the park. “From the way the decisions are made to the environmental education and conservation programs.”

A dollar from every admission fee paid to the park is donated to the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation.

“You can use the barcode on your entrance card to choose how that dollar is spent,” Gendron said. “What we’re trying to do is to make people understand. We make good choices for the earth, we make good choices for ourselves.”

The new Aqua City also boasts three classrooms, which are part of the Ocean Park Academy programs. Through OPA, the park runs educational tours for schoolchildren and workshops for teachers from the Hong Kong Institute for Education. Every year, the park offers more than 30 core courses for around 40,000 students on a wide range of wildlife topics, such as pandas, dolphins, sea lions, birds, fish and marine plants.

“Our classes are geared towards every age level, starting from kindergarten,” Gendron said. “We want to inspire all. We want them to start to understand issues of sustainability and protection of our natural resources from a very young age.”

Adjacent to the Grand Aquarium is Neptune’s Restaurant. The fine-dining establishment, which seats 210 people, features floor-to-ceiling aquariums so guests can watch the marine life as they eat. The restaurant serves Western, Chinese and Japanese cuisine, all using “sustainable seafood.”

"Sustainable seafood is about making wise choices about what fish we eat,” Gendron said.

“For example, shrimp. In Hong Kong, more people eat shrimp than drink milk. So, we have to find a supplier that harvests them in a sustainable way. If they use aqua culture, they don’t destroy the mangroves. If fished, they don’t take more than 10 kilograms of bycatch for every one kilogram of shrimp.”

In front of Aqua City, a lagoon serves as the backdrop for a fountain show that takes place every 30 minutes.

Every evening at 7 p.m., the lagoon also hosts “Symbio!,” a water and fire music show designed by Oscar-winning composer Peter Lehman.

The story is based on the ancient Chinese legend of the fire dragon and the water dragon. These mythical creatures struggled for control over the earth at its inception.

During the show, their battles are portrayed using special lighting that is projected onto 360-degree screens made out of water in the heart of the lagoon, while flames shoot out from the rocks.

The earth spirit intercedes and shows the powerful dragons how to work together to create the world as we know it today.

“The show portrays the symbiotic relationship between men and nature,” said Tom Mehrmann, chief executive of Ocean Park. “It conveys the message that we all need to collaborate to preserve and protect the earth. Live together, love together.”

The 10-minute show ends with fireworks lighting up the night sky with their multi-hued brilliance.

“Ocean Park is a park that belongs to the people of Hong Kong,” Gigi Leung said.

“But, it also belongs to the rest of the world. I hope people in Indonesia can come to this wonderful city and visit this magical park.”