Hong Kong's first biodiversity centre opened yesterday to show off the city's rich natural legacy.
'We chose this site to show how beautiful and diversified our nature is,' said Wendy Chan Li Po-shan, the senior supervisor of Wetland Park, during the opening ceremony.
'We wanted to show what we've done in the past 50 years in terms of wildlife protection.'
The Biodiversity Education Centre is located at the entrance to the Quarry Bay extension of Tai Tam Country Park. It is housed in Woodside, a red-brick Grade II historic property built in 1922, and has three galleries on the ground floor that feature the city's flora and fauna.
Some endangered species, such as the three-banded box turtle and the Hong Kong newt, are showcased in aquariums. A separate room shows a history of Hong Kong's ecological surveys.
The city has about 2,500 kilometres of natural streams, hundreds of kilometres of rugged coastline and extensive country parks. It is home to more than 300 native tree species and more than 230 butterfly species.
