Ocean World (Guangzhou, China): 27 May 2025
Ocean World is situated inside Guangzhou Zoo but with a separate entrance fee (160 Yuan versus the zoo's 20 Yuan). I don't know if the two facilities are both operated by the city or if the Ocean World is private (I suspect the latter).
It can be entered directly from outside the zoo or from within the zoo grounds, so can be visited alone or as a combined visit. You can also exit directly into the zoo so long as you have a zoo ticket.
It originally opened in January 1988 but has been closed for renovations for some time. It only just reopened a year ago, in June 2024 after five years.
Generally speaking it is a pretty good aquarium, although as usual in east Asian aquariums the marine mammals are very short on space. Most of the tanks for fish are fine, although some of those are a bit small as well.
The signage is mostly good, but there were always some unsigned species in the tanks as well. In a couple of cases two tanks shared revolving digital signage which was annoying. In the jellyfish room all the species were on just one revolving digital sign on the wall. The main tank with the escalator did not appear to have any signage at all. The outdoor pool with sea turtles had minimal signage for the fish.
The text on the signs varied from being provided in both Chinese and English, to being solely in Chinese. The inclusion of scientific names was likewise a bit erratic unfortunately, and as I found when creating the species list there were several instances where the scientific name used on the sign was for an entirely different fish (in the most extreme case, a moray eel was given the scientific name of a South American knifefish).
There are at least four species of mammals: Beluga, Harbour Seals, sealions and dolphins (neither of the latter seen). The Beluga is always on show in its tank inside the Aquarium building. The Harbour Seals were in a tiny rectangular pool beside one of the show arenas outside. When I arrived there was a show about to start with the "fur seals", which I think was just confusion over English names because online sources say they have sealions (South American and Californian are both mentioned in articles). The dolphins could only be seen during shows, and online sources say they are Bottlenose Dolphins.
There are a couple of outdoor exhibits - the seal show arena and adjacent Harbour Seal pool, and a large raised pool with viewing windows for Green Sea Turtles. There is a lot of signage about turtles but almost nothing for the fish which also live in the pool. I only saw one small sign which had just four species pictured.
The Aquarium building starts initially with the dolphin show arena, and then moves on to the aquarium tanks. From reading some older articles it seems like with the renovation they have reversed the route around the Aquarium. Now your visit begins with a shark tank but it is not the shark tank they used to have (which is now the tank you pass through the middle of on an escalator as you exit the building, and which has no sharks in it).
The shark tank is fairly small, and the sharks look somewhat cramped in there. On the wall nearby are three small tanks which include a really cramped shark tank for White-spotted Bamboo Sharks. The other two tanks are a mixed tank for (predominantly) Monos, and one for Sharksuckers.
The Beluga tank is not tiny but it's not large either. It looks a bit peculiar as well, because they have painted the (underwater) walls with scenes of (above water) Arctic landscapes.
From here on the Aquarium follows a fairly standard pattern. First a corridor of small tanks for tropical marine fish which ends at a room full of jellyfish tanks with rotating light colours. It does make one wonder who first started the "jellyfish at the disco" trend. Then there is the freshwater hall with an Amazon tank, a boat-shaped tank for goldfish, a marine touch tank, several largish tanks for mid-sized fish (Oscars, Giant Gouramis, Archerfish, that sort of thing), and then something different - an area dedicated to the fish of the Pearl River system in southern China, with probably about ten or so tanks.
The tropical marine tanks are on the floor below, reached via a spiral staircase around a tall cylinder tank which was entirely unsigned. There are eight tanks on the lower level, one of which is a reef tank 18 metres long. Some of the others are taxonomic tanks - there is a tank for different species of triggerfish, one for butterflyfish, one for puffers, and one for moray eels. Another houses the two lookalike fish, Moorish Idol and Pennant Coralfish. The last two tanks seem to be "general" tanks, although one is based around a "sunken ship".
The final exhibit is a large "ocean" tank which has an escalator rising up through it to the floor above where the exit is. The viewing for this tank is from a front window, and then from inside the escalator tube itself but there is no way to stand still while on the way up to observe or photograph any of the fish. There is no signage for this tank either, which was a shame.
Ocean World is situated inside Guangzhou Zoo but with a separate entrance fee (160 Yuan versus the zoo's 20 Yuan). I don't know if the two facilities are both operated by the city or if the Ocean World is private (I suspect the latter).
It can be entered directly from outside the zoo or from within the zoo grounds, so can be visited alone or as a combined visit. You can also exit directly into the zoo so long as you have a zoo ticket.
It originally opened in January 1988 but has been closed for renovations for some time. It only just reopened a year ago, in June 2024 after five years.
Generally speaking it is a pretty good aquarium, although as usual in east Asian aquariums the marine mammals are very short on space. Most of the tanks for fish are fine, although some of those are a bit small as well.
The signage is mostly good, but there were always some unsigned species in the tanks as well. In a couple of cases two tanks shared revolving digital signage which was annoying. In the jellyfish room all the species were on just one revolving digital sign on the wall. The main tank with the escalator did not appear to have any signage at all. The outdoor pool with sea turtles had minimal signage for the fish.
The text on the signs varied from being provided in both Chinese and English, to being solely in Chinese. The inclusion of scientific names was likewise a bit erratic unfortunately, and as I found when creating the species list there were several instances where the scientific name used on the sign was for an entirely different fish (in the most extreme case, a moray eel was given the scientific name of a South American knifefish).
There are at least four species of mammals: Beluga, Harbour Seals, sealions and dolphins (neither of the latter seen). The Beluga is always on show in its tank inside the Aquarium building. The Harbour Seals were in a tiny rectangular pool beside one of the show arenas outside. When I arrived there was a show about to start with the "fur seals", which I think was just confusion over English names because online sources say they have sealions (South American and Californian are both mentioned in articles). The dolphins could only be seen during shows, and online sources say they are Bottlenose Dolphins.
There are a couple of outdoor exhibits - the seal show arena and adjacent Harbour Seal pool, and a large raised pool with viewing windows for Green Sea Turtles. There is a lot of signage about turtles but almost nothing for the fish which also live in the pool. I only saw one small sign which had just four species pictured.
The Aquarium building starts initially with the dolphin show arena, and then moves on to the aquarium tanks. From reading some older articles it seems like with the renovation they have reversed the route around the Aquarium. Now your visit begins with a shark tank but it is not the shark tank they used to have (which is now the tank you pass through the middle of on an escalator as you exit the building, and which has no sharks in it).
The shark tank is fairly small, and the sharks look somewhat cramped in there. On the wall nearby are three small tanks which include a really cramped shark tank for White-spotted Bamboo Sharks. The other two tanks are a mixed tank for (predominantly) Monos, and one for Sharksuckers.
The Beluga tank is not tiny but it's not large either. It looks a bit peculiar as well, because they have painted the (underwater) walls with scenes of (above water) Arctic landscapes.
From here on the Aquarium follows a fairly standard pattern. First a corridor of small tanks for tropical marine fish which ends at a room full of jellyfish tanks with rotating light colours. It does make one wonder who first started the "jellyfish at the disco" trend. Then there is the freshwater hall with an Amazon tank, a boat-shaped tank for goldfish, a marine touch tank, several largish tanks for mid-sized fish (Oscars, Giant Gouramis, Archerfish, that sort of thing), and then something different - an area dedicated to the fish of the Pearl River system in southern China, with probably about ten or so tanks.
The tropical marine tanks are on the floor below, reached via a spiral staircase around a tall cylinder tank which was entirely unsigned. There are eight tanks on the lower level, one of which is a reef tank 18 metres long. Some of the others are taxonomic tanks - there is a tank for different species of triggerfish, one for butterflyfish, one for puffers, and one for moray eels. Another houses the two lookalike fish, Moorish Idol and Pennant Coralfish. The last two tanks seem to be "general" tanks, although one is based around a "sunken ship".
The final exhibit is a large "ocean" tank which has an escalator rising up through it to the floor above where the exit is. The viewing for this tank is from a front window, and then from inside the escalator tube itself but there is no way to stand still while on the way up to observe or photograph any of the fish. There is no signage for this tank either, which was a shame.
