Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part seven: 2024-2025

[Chlidonias]

Taipei Zoo


The next two days were zoo days.

The Taipei Zoo is really good, easily one of the best in Asia, and for the most part the enclosures are very good. It is really big too, and the paths are a little complex. Some backtracking is required to see everything but it's not too bad, and the map does quite a good job of ensuring you don't miss anything.

A pangolin phone - a phongolin, if you will.


I visited twice. The first visit with @FunkyGibbon we were there in persistent and sometimes heavy rain from opening until after closing (about nine hours), and then I went back the next day when it was clear skies and was there for another five hours even with skipping the Reptile House (because it was closed that day) and the Insectarium (because I had a full species list for that already).

The signage on some of the enclosures can be a little confusing - quite often a sign will give the impression of several species being on display when in fact they are just highlighting similar or related species. This was particularly a problem in the walk-through aviaries where you may be left wondering if a sign showing "similar species" is saying that those similar species are all in the aviary, or if only one species is.

The collection is comprehensive, with mammals from the standard ABCs to more unusual smaller mammals, a large bird area, reptile house, and insect house. Only fish are not well represented - there is no Aquarium so the only fish are South American species in the large tanks of the Pangolin Dome, and some cichlids and others in the hippopotamus pools.

Hippo being fish-cleaned.

Reeves' Muntjac in the gorilla enclosure.


I have put a species list and walk-through review with photos here: Taipei Zoo species list and walk-through: May 2025 [Taipei Zoo]

The photo gallery for the zoo is here: Taipei Zoo - ZooChat


The zoo grounds are set in rainforest and are good for wild birds. Notably the endemic Taiwan Blue Magpie is easy to see here.

Taiwan Blue Magpie

White-breasted Waterhen


In the evening it was back to Fuyang Eco Park for another round of flying squirrel hunting. I saw another Taiwan Ferret-Badger (up the steps on the other side of the park), and another two Masked Palm Civets feeding in a fig tree. Still no flying squirrels. This was getting annoying!

Taiwan Ferret-Badger (top) and Masked Palm Civet at Taipei Zoo.

 

[Chlidonias]

Taipei - last day in Taiwan


For my last day in Taiwan I went to the village of Wulai to have a last attempt at Chestnut-bellied Tits and Swinhoe's Pheasants. Both are recorded at Wulai but I wasn't too hopeful because the reports are scattered rather than consistent.

Wulai is a well-known birding location quite near Datongshan which I visited at the start of my Taiwan leg. It is easy to reach - bus #849 from the Xindian metro station runs every 15 to 20 minutes through the day, starting at 5.30am, and Wulai is the terminal stop.

I tried the road leading past the cemetery first. This is just a few minutes walk from the bus stop. After going past a school you take a side-road on the right which winds steeply uphill. There alternatively is a set of narrow stone steps leading straight up the hill before reaching the actual side-road. This connects somewhere higher up to a trail which leads over the hills to the waterfall. It was ridiculously hot up there. I just saw the standard birds, including the usual endemics with "Taiwan" in front of their names (blue magpie, barbet, scimitar-babbler), and also some Grey-chinned Minivets.

Then I headed for the waterfall which is up the main road from the bus stop. I was going to walk there, but a passing lady pointed out some steps and said that there was a little train up there, and that sounded interesting. The train is called a log cart because it is a mechanical version of the old hand-carts the loggers used to bring logs down the mountain. It's basically like a little toy train and only cost 50 TWD.

Wulai seems like a bit of a failed tourist town. At the waterfall area there are lots of little restaurants and souvenir-type shops, but above them are also some huge rotting buildings which look like they used to be hotels. The waterfall was quite impressive. I walked up the winding road to the Waterfall Gardens. There were more Taiwan Blue Magpies and Grey Treepies here, as well as Bronzed Drongos and Pigmy Woodpeckers. The gardens seem pretty abandoned as well. There are some wooden walkways and platforms but the "gardens" are more foresty than gardeny. I didn't see anything new here.

I walked back to the main town to catch the bus back to Taipei. This road runs through forest most of the way, and largely follows the river as well, but I think it was just too hot for many birds to be active.


In the evening I made my final attempt at Fuyang. Not long after arriving I saw something moving in a tree canopy against the sky. I couldn't get the eye-shine right away, but could see bits and pieces of the animal between the leaves. At first I thought it was a civet feeding on figs, the tail looked like a civet tail, but when I got glimpses of the head there did not seem to be any white striping. After seeing the head in silhouette a few times and seeing no stripes I decided it was a flying squirrel. Tonight would be an early night then. I still hadn't got a good look at it yet, but I was convinced it had to be a flying squirrel. The leaves in this tree were so thick that I spent about twenty minutes trying to get a look I would be happy with. Finally the animal moved to the very top of the tree, and stretched up an exposed branch so I could see its whole body. It was a Masked Palm Civet.

Fuyang Eco Park is supposed to be an easy reliable site for the giant flying squirrel. Maybe it is a seasonal thing, or maybe it was just bad luck. In any case, over five nights I found it to be a very good site for Taiwan Ferret-Badgers (three seen) and Masked Palm Civets (six seen), but of the flying squirrels not a whisker.

Tropical Leatherleaf Slug (Laevicaulis alte) seen at Fuyang Eco Park on this night. It's not a flying squirrel but it is, well, it's a big slug.


And that brings Taiwan to a close. In the next post I will do the usual round-up of money spent and et cetera and so on, and then we'll move to the next country.

 

[Chlidonias]

Wulai - the most abandoned road I've ever seen, and an overgrown building...

 

[Chlidonias]

The log-cart train, the upper station, the waterfall (there's a cable car to the top of it), and one of what I think used to be hotels.

 

[Chlidonias]

TAIWAN ROUND-UP


Recapping Taiwan, I started in Taipei for a few days which were partly spent on trying to formulate a plan but I did visit a couple of bird spots as well (without much luck). Then I headed south down the west coast to Taichung from where I visited the Xitou Nature Education Center (which was great) and the Baxianshan Forest Recreation Area (which did not go so well).

Then I went all the way down to the bottom of the island to Hengchun, stopping en route to visit the Formosan Golden Bats Home, and after a few days halfway back up the west coast to go to Fenqihu and Alishan (which turned out to also be pretty great).

After Alishan it was across to the southeast coast to Taitung, and then up the east coast to Yilan and back to Taipei.


Taiwan... was not my favourite place. I liked Xitou and (after some initial adjustment) Alishan, but in general I didn't really like being in Taiwan. It's kind of like it's a country halfway between being both Japan and China but it is less than either. I loved Japan, I love China, I don't particularly like Taiwan. Part of it is probably just that I was there at a bad time of year for birds but that is unavoidable on long trips - some places are always going to be hit at a bad time of the year - and part is probably that I hadn't the preparation I usually have on trips which left me frustrated. But I just didn't like the country overall. There are various birds and mammals I didn't see, the primary one probably being the Swinhoe's Pheasant (the bird I most associate with Taiwan!) and I really wish I'd got to see that flying squirrel, but I don't think I'll be coming back to Taiwan. Never say never, but it seems unlikely. On the plus side, it definitely did not turn out to be the worst country I've visited!



COSTS:

As with Japan, what I have done for costs is to go through my bank withdrawals and add all those up, because that covers all the online hotel bookings, as well as the physical ATM withdrawals, and thus gives a "real" total of what I spent without having to try and juggle what the booking site said a hotel price was and what my bank's idea of what the price was. It isn't properly reflective of the actual costs of things there because of the extra fees on the online hotel bookings, but it is a full total of how much money came out of my bank while there.


Total spent and average per day (exchange rates all roughly rounded up or down).
NZ$ 4143.25 total, which is about 73523.85 TWD ; UK 1837 ; Euro 2145.45 ; US$ 2490

Over 33 days that’s an average per day of roughly: NZ$ 125.50 ; 2227 TWD ; UK 55.65 ; Euro 65 ; US$ 75.40

That's expensive!

NZ$ 2707.18 of the total was spent on hotels [about 48040 TWD ; UK 1200.30 ; Euro 1401.80 ; US$ 1627]


That cost does not include the flights in and out of Taiwan which were as follows:

Flights:
NZ$ 389.54 which is roughly 6912.50 TWD ; UK 172.70 ; Euro 201.70 ; US$ 234.10

NZ$ 269.25 - Batik Air, from Okinawa (Japan) to Taipei (Taiwan) [bought before leaving New Zealand]

NZ$ 120.29 - Hong Kong Airlines, from Taipei (Taiwan) to Hong Kong



I don't know how much I spent on any individual local bus or metro line because I was using an EasyCard, but I used the card 116 times for a total of 2500 TWD [roughly NZ$ 140.90 ; UK 62.50 ; Euro 72.95 ; US$ 84.70]



HOTELS:

Hotels were much more expensive in Taiwan than I was expecting - basically Japanese prices while I was anticipating Chinese prices. As always part of it was that I was constrained by only being able to book through one site (Trip. com) - and that meant each hotel cost me more, sometimes significantly more, than the actual rate because of the bank. A good example of that is the Back Home Hotel in Chiayi which was listed as being NZ$ 60 per night but by the time the bank had done their thing the amount I paid was over NZ$ 72 per night. However, just in general the country was much more expensive than I thought it would be.

The hotels in the order I stayed in them are below. The average cost works out as NZ$ 82 per night (i.e. the total amount - NZ$ 2707.18 - divided by 33 nights), but as you can see the individual rates ranged widely from NZ$ 28.60 for the Liho Hotel to the very overpriced Gau Shan Ching Hotel at Alishan which was NZ$ 147.56 per night.

The monetary amounts in the paragraph above, courtesy of XE:
NZ$ 2707.18 [about 48040 TWD ; UK 1200.30 ; Euro 1401.80 ; US$ 1627]
NZ$ 82 [about 1455 TWD ; UK 36.35 ; Euro 42.45 ; US$ 49.30]
NZ$ 28.60 [about 507.50 TWD ; UK 12.70 ; Euro 14.80 ; US$ 17.20]
NZ$ 147.56 [about 2618.50 TWD ; UK 65.40 ; Euro 76.40 ; US$ 88.70]


HOTELS:
The Dealer Hotel (Taipei) - NZ$ 696.58 for 7 nights (NZ$ 99.50 per night average)
i-Deal Hotel (Taichung) - NZ$ 297.25 for 5 nights (NZ$ 59.45 per night average)
Yes Hotel (Chiayi) - NZ$ 45.62 for 1 night (NZ$ 45.62 per night average)
Mu Yu B&B (Hengchun) - NZ$ 201.42 for 3 nights (NZ$ 67.14 per night average)
Liho Hotel (Tainan) - NZ$ 28.60 for 1 night (NZ$ 28.60 per night average)
Fenchihu Hotel (Fenqihu) - NZ$ 133.81 for 1 night (NZ$ 133.81 per night average)
Gau Shan Ching Hotel (Alishan) - NZ$ 442.69 for 3 nights (NZ$ 147.56 per night average)
Back Home Hotel (Chiayi) - NZ$ 145.43 for 2 nights (NZ$ 72.71 per night average)
Norden Ruder Hostel (Taitung) - NZ$ 153.52 for 3 nights (NZ$ 51.17 per night average)
Mucha Boutique Hotel (Yilan) - NZ$ 205.91 for 3 nights (NZ$ 68.63 per night average)
The Dealer Hotel (Taipei) - NZ$ 418.35 for 4 nights (NZ$ 104.58 per night average)



OTHER STUFF:

I only visited one zoo while in Taiwan, and one aquarium. I have put reviews of them here:

Taipei Zoo species list and walk-through: May 2025 [Taipei Zoo]

National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium: May 2025 visit [National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium]

 

[Chlidonias]

Advertising display seen in the underground mall near the hotel in Taipei:


"We need a really good name for our resort. Something like Palm Tree Island or Coral Sands Island"
"I know - Depot Island"
"Perfect!"

 

[Chlidonias]

BIRDS

I saw 121 bird species in Taiwan, of which 27 were lifers (in bold below).

The number of endemics in Taiwan is kind of fluid, but somewhere between 30 and 36, of which I saw about two-thirds. The ones I missed were mostly skulky little things like bush warblers and shortwings and cupwings. However, I very much wanted to see Swinhoe's Pheasant, Taiwan Partridge, Chestnut-bellied Tit, and Yellow Tit. Maybe I will have to come back to Taiwan after all...

The list was just copied off my rough draft so there will be some quirks in it, I haven't bothered with italicising the scientific names, and I haven't done the subspecies yet.


Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis
Great Egret Egretta alba modesta
Intermediate Egret Egretta intermedia
Little Egret Egretta garzetta
Grey Heron Ardea cinerea
Eastern Cattle Egret Bubulcus coromandus
Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax
Malayan Night Heron Gorsarchius melanolophus
Chinese Pond Heron Ardeola bacchus
Cinnamon Bittern Ixobrychus cinnamomeus
Yellow Bittern Ixobrychus sinensis
Mallard Anas platyrhynchos
Eastern Spot-billed Duck Anas zonorhyncha
Tufted Duck Aythya fuligula
Osprey Pandion haliaeetus
Black Kite Milvus migrans
Crested Goshawk Accipiter trivirgatus
Grey-faced Buzzard Butastur indicus
Crested Serpent-Eagle Spilornis cheela
Feral Peafowl Pavo cristatus
Mikado Pheasant Syrmaticus mikado
Ring-necked Pheasant Phasianus colchicus
Common Coot Fulica atra
Common Moorhen Gallinula chloropus
White-breasted Waterhen Amaurornis phoenicurus
Whiskered Tern Chlidonias hybrida
Oriental Pratincole Glareola maldivarum
Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleuca
Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola
Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus (himantopus)
Feral Pigeon Columba livia
Spotted Dove Streptopelia chinensis
Red Collared Dove Streptopelia tranquebarica
Oriental Turtle Dove Streptopelia orientalis
Emerald Dove Chalcophaps indica
White-bellied Green Pigeon Treron sieboldii
Mountain Scops Owl Otus spilocephalus
Savannah Nightjar Caprimulgus affinis
Lesser Coucal Centropus bengalensis
Oriental Cuckoo Cuculus optatus
Taiwan Barbet Psilopogon nuchalis
Grey-capped Pigmy Woodpecker Yungipicus canicapillus
Common Kingfisher Alcedo atthis
Pacific Swift Apus pacificus
Asian House Swift Apus nipalensis
White Wagtail Motacilla alba
Eastern Yellow Wagtail Motacilla tschutschensis
Richard's Pipit Anthus richardi
Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica
Pacific Swallow Hirundo tahitica
Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis dauurica
Striated Swallow Cecropis striolata
Asian House Martin Delichon dasypus
Grey-chinned Minivet Pericrocotus solaris
Chinese Bulbul Pycnonotus sinensis
Styan's Bulbul Pycnonotus taivanus
Black Bulbul Hypsipetes leucocephalus
Brown-eared Bulbul Hypsipetes amaurotis
Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus
Taiwan Hwamei Garrulax taewanus
Rufous-capped Babbler Cyanoderma ruficeps
Rusty Laughing-Thrush Pterorhinus poecilorhynchus
White-whiskered Laughing-Thrush Trochalopteron morrisonianum
Taiwan Scimitar-Babbler Pomatorhinus musicus
Black-necklaced Scimitar-Babbler Erythrogenys erythrocnemis
White-eared Sibia Heterophasia auricularis
Steere's Liocichla Liocichla steerei
Taiwan Barwing Actinodura morrisoniana
Taiwan Yuhina Yuhina brunneiceps
Morrison's Fulvetta Alcippe morrisonia
Taiwan Fulvetta Fulvetta formosana
Vinous-throated Parrotbill Suthora webbiana
Swinhoe's White-eye Zosterops simplex
White-bellied Erpornis Erpornis zantholeuca
Arctic Warbler Phylloscopus borealis
Rufous-faced Warbler Abroscopus albogularis
Taiwan Yellow-bellied Bush Warbler Horornis concolor
Black-naped Monarch Hypothymis azurea
Japanese Paradise Flycatcher Terpsiphone atrocaudata
Taiwan Niltava Niltava vivida
Ferruginous Flycatcher Muscicapa ferruginea
Snowy-browed Flycatcher Ficedula hyperythra
Collared Bush-Robin Tarsiger johnstoniae
White-tailed Robin Myiomela leucura
Taiwan Whistling Thrush Myophonus insularis
Oriental Magpie-Robin Copsychus saularis
White-rumped Shama Copsychus malabaricus
Little Forktail Enicurus scouleri
Plumbeous Water Redstart Phoenicurus fuliginosus
Plain Prinia Prinia inornata
Yellow-bellied Prinia Prinia flaviventris
Zitting Cisticola Cisticola juncidis
Flamecrest Regulus goodfellowi
Black-throated Tit Aegithalos concinnus
Green-backed Tit Parus monticolus
Coal Tit Periparus ater
Eurasian Nuthatch Sitta europaea
Taiwan Bullfinch Pyrrhula owstoni
Brown Bullfinch Pyrrhula nipalensis
Taiwan Rosefinch Carpodacus formosanus
Indian Silverbill Euodice malabarica
Scaly-breasted Munia Lonchura punctulata
Chestnut Munia Lonchura atricapilla
White-rumped Munia Lonchura striata
Tree Sparrow Passer montanus
Plain Flowerpecker Dicaeum minullum
Asian Glossy Starling Aplonis panayensis
Common Mynah Acridotheres tristis
Crested Mynah Acridotheres cristatellus
Javan Mynah Acridotheres javanicus
Black-collared Starling Gracupica nigricollis
White-cheeked Starling Spodiopsar cineraceus
Black-naped Oriole Oriolus chinensis
Black Drongo Dicrurus macrocercus
Bronzed Drongo Dicrurus aeneus
Grey Treepie Dendrocitta formosae
Oriental Magpie Pica serica
Taiwan Blue Magpie Urocissa caerulea
Eurasian Jay Garrulus glandarius
Southern Nutcracker Nucifraga hemispila
Large-billed Crow Corvus macrorhynchos



MAMMALS

I saw 13 species of mammals, of which 7 were lifers (in bold below). I saw all the ones I cared about, except Chinese Pangolin but I didn't expect to see that one anyway. Almost all the commoner species I didn't see here I have seen elsewhere (Sambar, Wild Pig, Leopard Cat, Yellow-throated Marten, etc). However most of the species I saw, I only saw once or twice with the notable exception of the Pallas' Squirrel and Taiwan Macaque.


Formosan Golden Bat Myotis formosanus flavus - seen at only one place, at the Formosan Golden Bat's Home near Beigang.

Taiwan Macaque Macaca cyclopis - seen at multiple places, on 8 out of 33 days (at Xitou, Baxianshan, Sheding, and Alishan).

Asian House Rat Rattus tanezumi - seen only at Taipei Zoo.

Pallas' (Red-bellied) Squirrel Callosciurus erythraeus thaiwanensis - seen almost everywhere and on most days (17 out of 33 days) except down in Hengchun where I didn't see them at all.

Owston's Long-nosed Squirrel Dremomys pernyi owstoni - seen only once (one animal), at Xitou Nature Education Center.

Taiwan Striped Squirrel Tamiops formosanus - seen only once (one animal), at Alishan.

Taiwan Red and White Giant Flying Squirrel Petaurista lena - seen multiple times (several different animals) over three nights at Alishan.

Taiwan Ferret-Badger Melogale subaurantiaca - seen multiple times (three different animals) over five nights at Fuyang Eco Park (Taipei).

Crab-eating Mongoose Urva urva formosanus - seen only once (one animal), at Xitou Nature Education Center.

Masked Palm Civet Paguma larvata taivana - seen multiple times (six animals) over five nights at Fuyang Eco Park (Taipei).

Taiwan Sika Cervus nippon taiouanus - seen only once (one animal), at Sheding Nature Park (Hengchun).

Reeves' Muntjac Muntiacus reevesi micrurus - seen a couple of times at Alishan.

Taiwan Serow Capricornis swinhoei - seen only once (one animal), at Alishan.

 

[DavidBrown]

Never say never, but it seems unlikely. On the plus side, it definitely did not turn out to be the worst country I've visited!

Who gets that "honor"?

 

[Chlidonias]

Who gets that "honor"?

You'll see...

 

[Chlidonias]

Hong Kong: arrival

AKA the worst country I've visited.


When I left New Zealand the confirmed extent of this trip was entering Taiwan from Japan. Because of politics at the time I wasn't sure if visiting Taiwan would even be possible several months hence, so I had bought a more expensive ticket than usual which allowed cancellation, and I hadn't yet bought an exit flight. That way, if things went askew for the island then I could change plans and fly from Japan to Malaysia or somewhere instead.

Also when I left home, China had recently added New Zealand to the list of nations from which people could visit China visa-free for 15 days, and during the trip they increased that time to 30 days. New Zealanders have always required a Chinese visa which had a complicated (and lengthy and expensive) application process, so it seemed silly to pass up the opportunity to visit China again without any visa hassles when I was right there in the area.

With those two things in mind, when I was in Japan due to leave for Taiwan I searched for an appropriate flight from Taipei to China. They were all surprisingly expensive at the time, and I realised that it was much cheaper to fly to Hong Kong instead, and that had the added benefit that I could then enter China through Shenzhen by train which I figured would be quicker and easier than through an airport.

I had technically been to Hong Kong in 2013 but it was just a stop-over at the airport on the way to South Korea. I did see some birds (egrets and mynahs) through the windows but they weren't close enough to identify so officially I hadn't been to Hong Kong yet. Like most people, my definition of visiting a country is seeing identifiable birds there. In hindsight, from now having been there, the egrets were Little Egrets and the mynahs were Crested Mynahs, but that's irrelevant now.

My flight was with Hong Kong Airlines, the first time flying with them. They have the tiniest seat space I've ever had on a plane. I do not approve of this airline! Most of the air hostesses didn't seem very happy. My Hong Kong visit wasn't getting off to the greatest start.

In fact it wasn't starting off well even before I left Taiwan, because I managed to stuff up the bookings for both the flight and the hotel. I had several dates open for the flight, checking the prices and times, and when I went to book I accidentally chose the wrong one. Same price, same time - but pm instead of am. When the confirmation came through and I saw the landing time of 10pm I wasn't impressed with my own mistake!

Then I went looking for a hotel, which now was one needing a 24-hour reception because it was likely I wouldn't be getting there until some time close to midnight. Trip, and probably most booking sites I guess, have special "flight discounts" for hotels in the city to which you buy a flight but you have to claim it within a certain time limit. I was rushing a bit therefore, but I booked five nights at one of the cheapest hotels I could find which said it had 24-hour reception, and I thought I was sorted. Unfortunately, when the confirmation came through it said quite prominently that check-in time was only between 4pm and 6pm. What kind of a hotel has a check-in window of only two hours?! I went back to the original listing on Trip because I figured that there had to be a mistake there, but in fact hidden away on there it did say check-in was between 4pm and 6pm - despite saying they had 24-hour reception!

I dug deeper into the reviews, finding that it wasn't actually a "real" hotel as such but rather one floor of an Indian slum-building and the "24-hour reception" just meant that they have no reception (i.e. you just come and go as you please). It got worse the more I read, from the dodgy neighbourhood to bed bugs and fleas to filthy rooms to thefts. And, of course, refusal of refunds when people couldn't stay there any longer after the first night.

The booking was non-refundable, so I decided initially that I would book another hotel for the first night - somewhere with an actual 24-hour reception to which I could get easily from the airport - and then at least see what this other place was like for the remaining nights given that I'd already paid for it. In the end, though, I knew what I was going to get just from reading the reviews and (two days before leaving Taiwan) I booked a whole new hotel - actually for the same price too - and called the original booking a loss. It was "only" NZ$200, which I'd rather not have thrown away, but them's the breaks. I did try and cancel it with a refund on Trip to see what would happen and it did say I could try and claim the money back, but it also said that based on previous cases with that hotel the result would be negative, so I just cancelled it without trying to claim it back (as in, the reason I cancelled it rather than just not turning up was so that the hotel couldn't try and get "compensation" for a failed check-in which I also read about in the reviews!).


The plane landed at 9.45pm, about twenty minutes ahead of schedule, but then it taxied for twenty minutes and even after disembarking it took ages to get to immigration. First there was a bus from the plane to the terminal which seemed to be over a kilometre away, then once inside there was walking and walking and more walking, and then down an escalator where I unexpectedly found myself at a train platform! It turned out this takes the passengers to the immigration and luggage collection. I don't think I've ever come across this before. I had to ask one of the staff if I had missed a turn somewhere.

It was almost 11pm before I left the airport, even though immigration itself only took about ten seconds. I just gave him my passport, he scanned it, and I went through. No arrival form to fill out, no check for any accommodation booking, no check to see if I had onward travel (I'd booked a train to Shenzhen just in case I was asked). Nothing.

I bought an Octopus Card at the airport because as in Taiwan the buses need exact change. The card cost HK$200 of which HK$50 is the card price (refundable when I leave) and HK$150 the funds available for travel on the buses and trains. The funds were used up by the second day and I had to top it up with another HK$100.

From the airport I took the train, via two other stations, to the district of Mong Kok where the Dragon Hostel was located. A guy at the airport's metro station warned me to be careful once there because it was "messy". I didn't get there until midnight, and then I couldn't find the hotel. I spent about twenty minutes wandering around in the streets until stumbling across the door, which was locked, and then trying to find the alternative "after 11pm" door which was on the other side of the building.

It's not a great hotel. I wouldn't even call it a hotel to be honest. There's this thing that seems to be common in Hong Kong where someone just turns an entire floor of a scummy apartment building into a "hotel" and rents out the rooms.

This building is 16 floors high, and each floor appears to be a different hotel. There's one of those "business listings" boards on the ground floor by the elevators, and all the names are different hotels - although it wouldn't surprise me if they were actually all the same hotel spread over different names to avoid too many bad reviews. There are two elevators, one for the even-numbered floors and the other for the odd-numbered floors. Because there are so many people sometimes it takes a while to get an elevator. I'd hate to think what would happen in a fire, although if there was a fire you'd die anyway because there are no windows in the rooms.

The room was clean although very small and it had no bed bugs (!), but the surroundings were slum-like.



Some observations about Hong Kong made in the next few days:

7-elevens here are not like those in Taiwan and Japan. Here they are tiny little cubicles. They look like those little newspaper stand type shops.

I also saw my first Circle K, which are convenience stores I have only previously known of via Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. These are oddly common in Hong Kong.

There is always water dripping (or running) from the buildings overhead, and it's not raining. I had to be careful to either walk on the inside of the pavement closest to the building, or on the edge of the street. I don't want to know where that water is coming from.

I was very surprised at how little English was spoken. In Japan and Taiwan I used the translation app on my phone but not regularly because I found English to be quite widespread even if not fluent, and I didn't have any real trouble anywhere. However I had expected English to be commonplace in Hong Kong and instead I found it rare.

 

[Chlidonias]

The hotel - shot of the entire room, and a couple of shots of what the outside walkways look like.

 

[Chlidonias]

Hong Kong: day one


I had set today aside as a "zoo day" because I knew I probably wouldn't be getting up too early. Hong Kong has a few different animal collections, of which I visited three free ones today (the aviaries at Kowloon Park, then the Edward Youde Aviary, then the Hong Kong Zoo). There is also Ocean Park which I skipped because it has an entry fee of HK$448 (about NZ$96).

This morning was when I had my first food in Hong Kong. It was a basic dumpling noodle soup and to say I was unimpressed would be putting it mildly. How anyone can get noodles wrong escapes me. I figured the meals could only get better from there but I was to be sorely disappointed. I've never been in a country where the food was so consistently poor. I ended up taking photos of every single meal because they somehow kept getting worse. There were a couple which I proclaimed as "good", and some I'd go as far as to say were "okay" but I suspect that's only in comparison to the rest. I'm going to post all the photos later, after the main posts about Hong Kong have been finished. That will the culinary review section of the thread.

The food was one part of why I disliked Hong Kong so much. The food was mostly bad, the service was bad - except in one restaurant the staff were either indifferent or just plain rude, even seemingly hostile on occasion. Maybe they didn't like tourists, maybe I looked like I couldn't afford to eat their crappy food, in any case going into restaurants isn't much fun when the food is bad and the staff are unfriendly. And everything is too expensive.

Hong Kong was also apparently going through a heat-wave while I was there. I saw an emergency heat shelter at one point, and extreme heat warning signs up. So that didn't help!

Today was too hot, far hotter than any of the hottest days I'd endured in Taiwan and those had already been too hot for me. But I was just pottering around city parks for now, not doing anything strenuous so it was all good.

Even after just one day in Hong Kong I could safely say I was not a fan. It's such an ugly decrepit place. The parks I was in today are really nice, but Hong Kong itself is just awful. It's like China moved on and modernised while Hong Kong just remained wallowing in decaying senility.


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Kowloon Park

Kowloon Park is a small city park which is easily reached by metro, the Tsim Sha Tsui station being situated at the corner of the park. There is an attractive lake with over a hundred Greater Flamingos, and nearby there is a group of seven aviaries arranged in a circular fashion with the shelters in the centre and the whole surrounded by a visitor walkway set back from the aviaries themselves. The aviaries are reasonably large and well-planted, and house exotic pigeons and parrots.

I have put a species list here: Kowloon Park: species list, 22 May 2025 [Kowloon Park]


There are lots of wild Black-crowned Night Herons living around the lake, and despite the heat I saw a small selection of other common birds in the park as well, including Black-collared Starlings, Red-whiskered Bulbuls, Swinhoe's White-eyes, and Masked Laughing Thrushes.

Masked Laughing Thrush


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Edward Youde Aviary

From Tsim Sha Tsui station I took the metro to the next station, Admiralty, which is just by Hong Kong Park.

The Edward Youde Aviary is situated at one end of Hong Kong Park. It opened in 1992, covers approximately 3000 square metres and the highest point is 30 metres above the floor. There is a single raised walkway through the aviary. It is open 9-5 every day, and is free to enter. There is also an adjoining group of three individual smaller aviaries.

The pamphlet at the entrance claims they house seventy species of birds with around 550 individuals but this is not the case any longer. Currently there are about fifty species of birds in the walk-through aviary.

I have put a species list here: Edward Youde Aviary: species list, 22 May 2025 [Edward Youde Aviary]


I only saw a few wild birds at this park - most of my time being spent inside the aviary photographing the captive birds - but among them were Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoos which are a long-established breeding species in Hong Kong.

Just by the set of individual aviaries is a big sign about the city's introduced Pallas' Squirrels, calling it the Hong Kong Park Squirrel Conservation Area (the squirrels are identified on the sign as being "Belly-banded Squirrels Callosciurus flavimanus"). I cast my eyes about and saw a squirrel running up a palm tree. My first and only wild mammal in Hong Kong.


Here are some birds from the aviary:

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Hong Kong Zoo and Botanical Gardens

The Botanical Gardens are a park almost adjoining Hong Kong Park and it is a fairly short walk between them.

The Hong Kong Zoo is a small free collection of animals, primarily birds and monkeys. The zoo is divided by a busy road into two sections - one for birds and the other for mammals - with access to either side via a tunnel.

The bird section is very good, with large well-planted aviaries, while the mammal section has mostly small cages and is not very pleasant - it's not awful but it is not great by any stretch. The cages look much better in photos than they do in person. This area is well-kept, the cages are not dirty, everything looks well cared for: the cages are just small.

I have put a species list here: Hong Kong Zoo: species list, 22 May 2025 [Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens]

 

[Chlidonias]

Hong Kong is another place that has it in for the poor harmless diseased pigeons.




But this cat pretending to be birdwatching is really just wanting to get amongst those pigeons.

 

[Chlidonias]

The squirrel sign at Hong Kong Park, and a whole lotta Red-eared Sliders...

 

[aardvark250]

well i guess its time for me to post and "clarify" some of the "scandulous" claim.
Hong Kong is expensive, and i know of these sketchy hotel that you're referring to. Unfortunately due to the high housing price you would never find anything except those within your budget.

There is always water dripping (or running) from the buildings overhead, and it's not raining. I had to be careful to either walk on the inside of the pavement closest to the building, or on the edge of the street. I don't want to know where that water is coming from.

Common hong kong problem, air conditioner water dripping. Aint getting fixed any time.

I was very surprised at how little English was spoken. In Japan and Taiwan I used the translation app on my phone but not regularly because I found English to be quite widespread even if not fluent, and I didn't have any real trouble anywhere. However I had expected English to be commonplace in Hong Kong and instead I found it rare.

That's interesting. In my own personal experience i found it more easy to speak English within hk compare to both japan and taiwan which i found english rate to be quite low. Of course i speak cantonese here but my own assumption is most HKer would be able to speak english better than both, guess local v foreigner perception.

I've never been in a country where the food was so consistently poor. I ended up taking photos of every single meal because they somehow kept getting worse.

I mean that's more your problem i guess, maybe you are just consistently getting unlucky, the food here isnt poor at all.

...the service was bad - except in one restaurant the staff were either indifferent or just plain rude, even seemingly hostile on occasion. Maybe they didn't like tourists, maybe I looked like I couldn't afford to eat their crappy food, in any case going into restaurants isn't much fun when the food is bad and the staff are unfriendly. And everything is too expensive.

I can assure you this is not a tourist problem, the service is like that in Hong Kong. Don't expect to get any sort of services in restaurants unless you're in really class places. It is a talk here but trust me, I dont get service from restaurant staff any better. It's just how it works here and im not defending it.
P.S. It's not that expensive compare to other western countries, maybe its just because you doing this between japan taiwan and china which is definitely more cheaper (I mean some HK people regular go to shenzhen to shop and eat just because its so much cheaper in mainland)

Even after just one day in Hong Kong I could safely say I was not a fan. It's such an ugly decrepit place. The parks I was in today are really nice, but Hong Kong itself is just awful. It's like China moved on and modernised while Hong Kong just remained wallowing in decaying senility.

This is like saying you hate [insert country] because you lived in a slum there.

Im glad you enjoy the parks at least.

 

[Chlidonias]

Hong Kong: day two


I was only in Hong Kong for a few days and wasn't expecting to see anything new here, given that the local avifauna is a mix of eastern Chinese and southeast Asian birds. I'd picked out a couple of bird sites to visit but my main animal to see was supposed to be the pink dolphins which live in the harbour. These are Chinese Humpback Dolphins which actually are bubblegum-pink, but that never happened.

The cost of the boat has risen significantly in the last few years and is now HK$580 (which is about NZ$120); it only goes out a couple of times a week at most (as their website phrases it: "mainly on Sundays and possibly additional Wednesdays that are holidays"); it needs booking well in advance; payment is only via bank transfer which is weird; and from what I gleaned the dolphins are much more rare now so the chances of seeing them are no longer guaranteed. In summary, it was too expensive and the pieces never fell into place.

Instead I just stuck with trying to find some birds although that went really badly due to the heat. I only saw 33 bird species in total over several days in Hong Kong, which is pretty pathetically low.


The first place I went was the Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve.

There are various train and bus combinations for getting there but for me (being at Mong Kok) all started at the Mong Kok East station. This isn't actually connected directly to the Mong Kok station, but it is still only about ten minutes walk from the hotel. Because there were different train and bus options depending on what time I left, I waited until I got to Mong Kok East before checking Google directions for the day. It told me to take the train to Tai Po Market station, then bus 28K to the Cheung Shue Tan stop, and then walk for 12 minutes.

I hate Google directions. Probably lots of people are familiar with the way it will give you a walking route around a bunch of unnecessary streets that takes twice as long as the most direct walking route (and you follow it because you don't know if those shorter streets are passable - that's why you're using Google directions), but checking it for public transport options can be really hit and miss as well. In this case I got off the bus at the Cheung Shue Tan stop like it said, then looked at the 12 minute walking part of the route and found that it said I had to walk to the next bus stop! It wasn't even that the 28K bus diverted off on a different road and missed out that stop, the next 28K passed as I was walking up there. When I got to that stop, the route map said I had to continue up the road for a couple of hundred metres, cross the road, and then come back down the other side to directly opposite where I was standing - and there was a crossing right there! Ridiculous.

The place Google had brought me to was a narrow road leading in an extremely steep zigzag up the hill past a number of graves. There was no signage indicating this was the nature reserve, although I could see on the map it was on the edge of a giant green space labelled as such. I looked closer at the map and found the actual entrance to the reserve - on the other side of the reserve. Not only on the other side, but at a bus stop which the 28K had passed. You might wonder why Google would choose a random graveyard path into the reserve as the destination and not the real entrance - I certainly did!

Nevertheless I climbed the path - it was so steep that "climbed" is the only possible word to use. It was so hot and humid, and the path so steep, that within just a few minutes I was soaked almost head to toe in sweat. Only the bottoms of my trouser legs weren't wet. I don't think I've ever been so thoroughly drenched in sweat anywhere in any country before. On the way here the bus had passed a government banner on a building announcing a "temporary heat shelter", so I guess it was unusually hot.

I saw some Silver-eared Mesias and Blue-winged Minlas, but the forest was thick and I was having trouble concentrating due to the almost total loss of moisture from my body.

After a good long while - so, maybe a few hundred metres - the path came to a level area and there was a little breeze. This was also where there were some shacks and makeshift cultivation. I could hear dogs barking somewhere up ahead. I couldn't see them so I didn't know if they were tied up or loose, with people or roaming, but they were in a group and I had no idea what the dogs in Hong Kong are like. I decided to just head back to the road and catch the bus to the real entrance.


View at Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve, from the graveyard path.




There was also a road going uphill at the proper entrance, but it wasn't anywhere near as steep as at the other place. I saw a Crested Serpent-Eagle perched in a dead tree, and a few little birds (Red-whiskered, Chinese, and Black Bulbuls, a Common Tailorbird, a White-rumped Munia, more Blue-winged Minlas, and some Japanese Tits), but it was just too darn hot.

At 10am I gave up and went back to the road, caught the first bus which came along hoping it would go back to the Tai Po Market station, and made my way back to the hotel.

 

[Chlidonias]

Hong Kong: day three


Another day of sweaty birding, although definitely not as sweaty as the previous day! At least on this day I saw more birds, with the 24 species seen being about twice the number of each of the other days.

I headed back to Kowloon Park first thing in the morning. I had heard Koels calling here the other day, so wanted to try and see them just because they would be "new" for both the year and the trip as a whole, and also Alexandrine Parakeets which I knew were common around here. I saw the parakeets pretty quickly and soon found a male Koel as well. In a big fig tree before I left saw more Koels of both sexes.


Then I went to the Hong Kong Wetland Park. This park doesn't open until 10am which is far too late, but there's not much can be done about that. It took about forty minutes to get there, with a couple of metro rides and then a bus. There was an "extreme heat" warning sign there.

Map of the Wetland Park

The park has a pretty big species list on eBird (278 species total - although only 106 recorded for May which is the month I was there) and is obviously a popular place for both birders and regular folk. There were quite a lot people about. There was also an entry fee, of HK$30 which seemed excessive. After Taiwan it felt odd being in a park like this, though, and not seeing Malayan Night Herons!

Signage, featuring my new nemesis species the Painted Snipe.


There is a good network of paths around the park, some boardwalks through mangroves and over ponds, and a few bird-watching hides as well. There is also an enclosure for a big Saltwater Crocodile named Pui Pui, possibly pronounced like a lazer gun firing.

I don't doubt that in cooler weather there would have been a lot more birds active, but I saw around twenty species including your typical wetland birds like various egrets and herons, Black-winged Stilts, Greater Coucals, and Plain and Yellow-bellied Prinias.

Little Egret, showing off his fancy yellow footwear

Chinese Pond Heron

Oriental Magpie-Robin

 

[Chlidonias]

Hong Kong: day four


I wasn't going to do anything today. It felt "wrong" being in a new place and not looking for birds, but every day was seriously hot and all I was getting in return for it was common birds. However it was cooler this morning so I tried a nearby park, King's Park, just one metro stop over from my hotel. It was more of a hill than a park, requiring a steep ascent up sets of steps and at the top was a small sports field for joggers. Nothing was gained except the common birds I'd already seen. I went back to the hotel to write blogs.


The next morning I left for China, which has the benefit of not being Hong Kong.


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I won't do a proper round-up for Hong Kong like I have for the other countries, because I was only there a few days. Basically:


The hotel cost NZ$40 per night (NZ$200 total) and was paid for online.

For cash spent I changed 1100 TWD into HK$244.54 when I arrived from Taiwan, and I got out HK$2000 from an ATM. When I got to China I had HK$1010 left which I changed into 902.43 Yuan.

HK$30 was for the ticket for the Hong Kong Wetland Park. The "zoos" I visited were all free.

So I spent HK$1200 (c.NZ$252) in cash on food and transport in just four days. Only HK$220 (cNZ$46) of that was the buses and trains, which meant I was spending over NZ$50 a day on food!

 

[aardvark250]

As you should know by now, summer is not the birding season here. I'd say birding season is from October to April, where the east asian australasian flyway bring us lots of birds, but yh summer without migratory birds and the sweltering heat turns off even the most avid birders. In migratory season even the city parks would give you some nice birds.

For the food cost, a usual meal for me just downstairs will took around 60-80 hkd, so you might overpaid a bit but honestly it isnt that expensive compare to other big cities

 

[Chlidonias]

THE GREAT PHOTOGRAPHIC FOOD TOUR OF HONG KONG!


Day One


1) This was my first meal in Hong Kong. Breakfast, HK$38. That's dumpling soup, but they are under the noodles. It was pretty bad. You'd think it would be difficult to mess up noodles in soup but they did it.




2) My second meal in Hong Kong. Lunch, HK$60. Even more disappointing than the first disappointing meal. Almost-cold meat and then just a plate of cold plain rice underneath.




3) And the third meal of the first day. Dinner, HK$45. I think it's beef brisket noodle soup. Better than the other two at least, but the coffee was still no good at all.