Photo TR: Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park (August 29, 2015)

August 29, 2015:

Before Ocean Park and Hong Kong Disneyland, there was Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park. Also known as Lai Yuen, this park opened in 1949 and closed "forever" in 1997. Nothing last forever though and as such, in 2015, Lai Yuen is back for the summer. The park is actually now a temporary carnival built at the waterfront in Hong Kong's central district. The owners have taken the time to try to recreate the park by recreating park landmarks. Although the rides here may not be much for most of us, it is nice to see a defunct park make a comeback.

There is no entrance fee to the park and the best attraction here is a small museum about the park's history that features a lot of photos and two carousel horses. The museum is free to enter. I didn't ride anything as a thunderstorm warning closed all of the rides, but I did eat some food and bought a couple of Lai Yuen notebooks at the souvenir shop ($5 HKD each-very cheap). The park is scheduled to run through September 3. I hope that it will come back next year if provided that it was successful this year.

Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park has returned for 2015 after closing forever in 1997.

This tells us where we need to go.

They have built a birthday cake to celebrate the fact that the park opened 66 years ago.

They have the usual games here based on traditional park games. The Ferris Wheel you see in the background is not a part of the park.

The merry go round is always a must at a park.

This is one of about a half a dozen rides here.

This giant dinosaur is also a slide.

This is a walk through based on an old elementary school in HK.

The Bumper Cars were waiting for the storm warning to end in order to carry passengers.

They had a little photo museum at the park. These horses were from the park's original carousel.