Rooftop Beehive, InterContinental Hong Kong - Unravel Travel TV

InterContinental Hong Kong, The First Hong Kong Hotel with a Rooftop Beehive, Harvests its own Home-grown Honey. As part of InterContinental Hong Kong's environmental initiatives, the hotel has set up a beehive on its rooftop and is producing its own honey. The hotel's goal in creating the rooftop beehive is to make a small stride to help increase the diminishing bee population, popularize urban bee-keeping in Hong Kong and also reduce its carbon footprint. As per Executive Assistant Manager Bryan Chiu, who has been involved in organising this project, "We are the only hotel in Hong Kong raising bees on our rooftop and certainly the only beehive with a panoramic harbourview. The hotel has partnered with Hong Kong Honey, an organization of beekeepers and designers in Hong Kong, who work together to promote the value of bees and the benefits of locally produced honey.

Did you know that a third of the food we eat depends on honey bee pollination? As per Michael Leung of Hong Kong Honey, "Bees are an essential and valuable part of our food system. As per the USDA, one-third of the food in our diet relies to some extent on bee pollination. In the past few years, the population of bees globally has been reduced. This is due in large part to the use of pesticides."

* The mid-August 2013 issue of TIME Magazine (USA) featured a cover story entitled "A World Without Bees: The price we'll pay if we do not figure out what's killing the honeybee."

Michael Leung of HK Honey adds, "It's important, especially in a place like Hong Kong, to have a relationship with your food and to know where your food comes from. This particular story is about knowing where your honey comes from."

"The bees we've placed on top of the hotel are a native species known as the Asian Bee. These bees are acclimatized to the Hong Kong environment and do not need to hibernate, so they can harvest honey all year-round.

They can fly a radius of 5 kilometers and back. When we set up a new beehive, we take a map and draw a circle of 5 kilometers to get an idea of where the bees will be pollinating. From the InterContinental Hong Kong, the bees can go to Kowloon Park King's Park in Yau Ma Tei or the parks in Hung Hom. So the InterContinental Hong Kong bees have enough food to eat, especially in an urban jungle like Hong Kong.

As per Executive Chef Sous Chef Simon Kwok, who has also taken on the role of Bee-keeper, "From a chef's point of view, we are looking at the end product, but of course, we need to know how the honey is produced. We leave the bees alone and just check on them once a day. Then we will harvest the honey every few months, together with Michael and his team from Hong Kong Honey.

The hotel's Executive Assistant Manager Bryan Chiu adds, "We are adding more rooftop beehives this fall and hope to therefore increase the bee population and our honey production. In a small way, we want to contribute to the overall environment in Hong Kong."

Michael Leung of Hong Kong Honey concludes by saying, "This is the first time Hong Kong Honey has collaborated with a hotel. We think this is a very meaningful project, as it's a message to the hotel's visitors, the public and people in Hong Kong that the hotel cares about the environment and where the ingredients for its food come from."

Coming Soon: Enjoy at Taste of InterContinental Hong Kong's Homegrown Honey. Once the hotel's homegrown honey production increases, guests will then be able to enjoy an exclusive selection of cocktails made with our limited edition honey, harvested from the rooftop beehive.

InterContinental Hong Kong, 18 Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2721 1211
Fax: +852 2739-4546
E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.hongkong-ic.intercontinental.com
http://www.intercontinental.com

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