HONG KONG – A yoga group on Thursday performed side planks, chair poses and lunges, with a giant aquarium filled with sharks, manta rays and other aquatic life in the backdrop.
Hong Kong’s Ocean Park has started offering fitness activities such as yoga, meditation and dance classes due to coronavirus restrictions.
Yoga instructor Jessica Lee said, “It’s really nice to be almost at one with them. I feel as if I am in the water, moving as fluidly as they are.”
The 43-year-old theme park and Walt Disney Co’s Hong Kong Disneyland have been shut down for most of the year, and was reopened in September.
According to its latest annual report, Ocean Park secured a HK$5.4 billion ($696 million)government bailout in May.
Anti-government protests last year and the emergence of competing amusement parks in the region such as Chimelong Ocean Kingdom on China’s Hengqin island, have imposed pressure on both Ocean Park and Hong Kong Disneyland.
Ocean Park also said it would for the first time start hiking trails. Air-conditioned tents will be available for people who want to camp and barbecue, it said.
However, 26-year-old resident Sze who was visiting Ocean Park on Thursday, said paying for yoga and hiking seemed to have an additional expense when she was only interested in the rides.
Sze, who did not want to reveal his identity, “We need to pay extra money to join the hiking activities while hiking is supposed to be free. Doing yoga is also free if you go into the wild.”