12.
CONFIDENTIAL
e) The Government has a target of one
swimming pool complex per 250,000 people
each complex containing a sufficiently large
number of pools to cater for up to 20,000
attendances in one day. Seven are already
in operation and two more are under construction.
f) A District Recreation Service has been set
up to organise and maximise the use of facilities
for recreation in urban and rural areas.
g) In parallel in order to provide a week-
end lung for the urban population the Government
is building picnic sites; country parks are
being established in wide areas of the unspoilt
New Territories (the number of visitors to
countryside recreation areas exceeds 2 million
a year); and a service to manage them is
being set up so as to ensure that their amenities
and their natural wild life and vegetation are
not destroyed.
h) An annual month-long Festival of the Arts
with about 7,000 subsidised seats for students
has given new impetus to the arts, so that a
professional orchestra has been formed and an
Arts Centre is under construction.