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You are here: Home / Featured / Tiger Balm Gardens

Tiger Balm Gardens

February 2, 2015 By Susan Blumberg-Kason 1 Comment

For decades, Tiger Balm Gardens in Hong Kong was a top tourist attraction. My mom went there in 1962 on her first trip to the colony, but I didn’t get around to it until Christmas 1996.

Tiger Balm wall and me

I still remember this outing quite clearly. My parents were visiting me for their winter break, but my dad had left a little early to get back to work. So on Christmas Day, my mom suggested going to Tiger Balm Gardens. I’d never been and was game.

Mom at Tiger Balm wall

It covered part of a hill in Wanchai and was originally built in the 1930s as the private residence of Tiger Balm tycoon Aw Boon Haw. By the early 1950s, it was opened to the public and was one of Hong Kong’s first theme parks.

Tiger Balm greenery

Tiger Balm view from above

At one point a couple decades after my mom saw the gardens, amusement rides replaced the Chinese mythical statues. But by the time I went there with my mom, the rides were gone and the statues were back.

Tiger Balm crowds

I remember the statues more worn down than what I see in most of these photos. And I remember my mom telling me that the gardens had seen better days. (Another thing I vividly remember is going to a nearby Filipino restaurant for lunch and ordering a delicious squid dish, complete with its black ink.)

Tiger Balm pagoda

Eight years after we visited Tiger Balm Gardens, they were demolished for a housing development.

Tiger Balm pig

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Hong Kong, My Family's Travels, old hong kong, vintage hong kong

Comments

  1. Padraic Ley says

    May 30, 2016 at 9:17 am

    HK Tiger Balm Garden was in Causeway Bay, Tai Hang Road. I lived closed by in 1970-1974. Wanchai is a little further to the west.

    Reply

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About Me

Susan Blumberg-Kason spent her childhood in suburban Chicago dreaming of the neon street signs and double-decker buses of Hong Kong. As soon as she was old enough, she moved there to study. Her memoir, Good Chinese Wife (Sourcebooks, 2014), recounts her years in a Chinese family as a wife, daughter-in-law, and mother.

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