Tamar Park

We came to Tamar Park for the Light Rose Garden (25,000 LED white roses from Seoul for New Years and Valentines) and unfortunately we were not the only ones. Crowds of couples and families flooded from the Admirality MTR station, cross the pedestrian bridge, and into Tamar Park. There was good crowd control with unidirectional paths making it a relatively painless process. The park has a nice view of Victoria Harbour (and Central’s skyline if you look back) and I can imagine it being a lovely, relaxing open space during other times.

Tamar park is a beautifully designed outdoor area for anyone to enjoy. This is not your typical park. The plant life, pavement, lighting, and artwork installations are placed with purpose.
The best times to come are during low peak hours (think office hours and after work hours). The train for this is to give you a peaceful surrounding that you can enjoy. When you pair serenity and beautiful architecture, you can’t help but be inspired by your surroundings.
This is one of the few places in Hong Kong I go to to clear the mind, or to be inspired for ideas.

If you work around Admiralty area, you must realize how difficult it is to have a seat to enjoy your lunch outside office. After the opening of the Government Headquarters, Tamar Park has become one of my favorite lunch spots.
Before heading to the park, one could easily grab a sandwich or something from Admiralty Centre. The Government Headquarters is designed conceptually as the Door that opens to the Harbour. Tamar Park is literally a green carpet leading your way to the Promenade. Along the green, there are benches available for you to enjoy your bites with unobstructed stunning harbour view for free. Unfortunately, there are so few canopies or pavilions that it is not as favourable in summer time.
During weekends, the footbridges in Central & Admiralty transform into the paradise for non-​local ethnic groups, the Government Headquarters is no exception. Locals are also coming here for picnic, reading, parties and even performance. The park thus turns into an intriging encountering point and social hub for locals, minorities and tourists. Tamar Park is truly realizing the concept of being an open space where People are Connected, just as what the design architect — Rocco Design Architects wishes to achieve.
Besides the nice architecture and landscape, you can find here some amazing permanent art installations. They are the winning elites that are commissioned under the ‘Public Art Project — Tamar’ competition, out of some 300 competition entries.
Some of the pieces like Fruit Market, Key to the City & Scent of Spring are sculpture, whereas others like Photosynthesis in Motion, Soundscape are more on the interactive side, acting as urban furniture that you can lean on, play as a musical instrument, or even climb as a mountain~

In 2011, the Education Bureau in Hong Kong decided to introduce National education to general public «teaching» students who to «love» our motherland, which of course caused public outrage and resulted in one of the biggest protest in Hong Kong history and Tamar Park was among the protest area because it is conveniently next to the government headquarter. And that was the first time I got there.
Politics aside, Tamar Park is definitely one of the best public spaces in Hong Kong that offers a vast mass of greeneries. With the breathtaking view of Victoria Harbour, it attracts lots of people coming here sitting on the grass enjoying their afternoon (though there had been news of security guards kicking you out when you do that). Its design concept is «perpetual green» (I have no idea how the government is playing with words these days…), representing over 80% of trees and lawn there. It also has several facilities including some water features, a theater and a Tamar Café.
It is such a shame that local people devote most of their time in working instead of taking a slower pace and enjoy a nice view from here. What I do oftentimes is to bring a picnic mat and some cards and have a nice picnic with Victoria Harbour behind me. If you can stand the heat, it is actually pretty relaxing and fun. This spot is definitely one of the secret places where you can take awesome pictures of the Hong Kong skyline without being surrounded by tons of tourists.

I had been looking around for a place to do sprints for a few weeks and wasn’t happy with the options around my place: Victoria Park was too crowded and there wasn’t any straight trail where I could run without bumping into people; Wan Chai Park… too hilly; Hong Kong Park, again crowded and uneven. I had resorted to the treadmill (and risked my life with it!) until a friend told me about Tamar Park. Yeah, I didn’t know about it until recently, sorry!
To get to Tamar Park from Admiralty, you need to get to Admiralty Center and cross the bridge until you get to the Government Offices. It’s a huge, beautiful park overlooking Victoria Harbour. From the entrance of the park you can see a green large carpet. The design of the park is simple and elegant. The first time I went there was on a sunny Sunday and was delighted to have found such a place, a little away from mayhem in Central and exceptionally quiet (on a Sunday, yes!). There were groups of people here and there but I could easily find a free spot under a tree and enjoy my book.
It is also a great place for those who work around Admiralty, like me. The downside is that there isn’t much shelter and you may want to avoid it during the hot stuffy months.
I came back at night a few weeks ago and the view is astonishing, much better than at daylight. It’s probably one of my favorite spots to contemplate Hong Kong from. It’s just a perfect mix of romanticism and peace.
Now, the reason I wanted to check it out was to go sprinting, and you can definitely do that, both in the park, in the early morning when it is empty, or you can go down to the Central Promenade. You will find people jogging along quite often but I expected it to be more crowded. If you carry on this trail, you can reach Central Piers and Star Ferry.
Whether you are runner or jogger or you simply haven’t found you ‘green piece’ in the city, I would very much recommend you visit Tamar Park. Or take your other half there at night, he/​she will fall in love with you if that hasn’t happened yet!