Without warning, and no doubt much to the chagrin of visiting tourists hoping to get a bird’s eye view of our city’s iconic skyline, Central Harbourfront’s Observation Wheel closed yesterday. The attraction’s future is shrouded in mystery as there appear to be no plans for it to reopen.
Although hardly ingrained in our collective consciousness as an essential part of the Island skyline – it being so much shorter than neighbouring skyscrapers – the Observation Wheel has nonetheless been a popular fixture since opening in December 2014.
The closure and subsequent confusion has apparently arisen due to the expiry of Swiss AEX’s, the wheel’s operator and tenant, contract for the land, which concluded on August 28.
The wheel’s website states that the ride is ‘closed today’, offering no other information except an email address through which to enquire about refunds (refund@hkow.hk).
We wrote about the Observation Wheel back when it opened and we weren’t entirely convinced about its viability even then. Read that article here and let us know how you feel about the wheel’s closure in the comments.