Hengqin Ocean Kingdom, a huge aquatic theme park in Guangdong Province, China has marked its official opening at the weekend with confirmation that it has set five new Guinness World Records titles.
As well as being recognised as the world’s largest aquarium, the attraction has also set records for largest underwater viewing dome, largest aquarium tank, largest aquarium window and largest acrylic panel.
There are seven themed areas inside the theme park, each representing a part of the ocean, with a total water volume of 48.75 million litres (10.72 million UK gal; 12.87 million US gal) of salt and fresh water, making it the world’s largest aquarium.
Situated in the Ocean Wonders area of the park, the Whale Shark Exhibit tank features the world’s largest acrylic panel which measures a massive 39.6 m (129 ft 11.05 in) by 8.3 m (27 ft 2.77 in), which in turn also sets a record for largest aquarium window.
The Whale Shark Exhibit tank also features the largest underwater viewing dome, pictured at the top of the page, which has an external diameter of 12 m (39 ft 4.44 in) and is placed over a cylindrical structure built inside the tank.
The tank itself has a volume of 22.7 million litres (4.99 million UK gal; 5.99 million US gal) of salt water, making it the world’s largest aquarium tank.
Following a soft opening earlier this year, Rowan Simons, President of GWR Greater China, attended the attraction’s official opening event on Sunday to present the official record certificates to Chen Ming An, General Manager of Chimelong Ocean Kingdom.
Speaking at the event, Simons said, “Breaking any world record is amazing, but to become the world’s largest aquarium requires phenomenal creative vision and immense engineering efforts. The result is an incredible attraction experience and Guinness World Records is delighted to recognize the five specific world-beating achievements that make it so special.
Accompanied by Chimelong’s Shi Yu Xiong and GWR Adjudicator Lisa Hoffman, Simons toured the Hengqin Ocean Kingdom attraction, including the five sites where official GWR plaques now mark the moment in history when each world record was verified.
