21
Recreation
Most of this book is naturally a record of work, a story of people building and manufacturing and trading. This chapter is about these same people in their leisure time. The variety of Hong Kong's leisure pastimes and the energy with which they are pursued would suggest that Hong Kong people play as hard as they work. This is certainly true of one of their favourite pastimes, at least among the older generation-mahjong. In hundreds of back-streets, in shops and small businesses where family and employees live and eat together it seems that no sooner are the shutters drawn at the end of the day than the clatter of the tiles begins, the enjoyment of the game being in a direct ratio to the amount of noise generated.
But perhaps mahjong, being noisy, only seems to be a major amusement because more and more the young people of Hong Kong are spending their leisure time in sports and recreation which are common to youth the world over.
High on the list of popular sports must come swimming and walking which account for the two biggest sporting events of the year if only because the sea is there for everyone and so is the road. At the annual cross-harbour race this year a record number of 492 youngsters leaped into the water at Kowloon Public Pier to swim the 1,600 yards to Queen's Pier on Hong Kong Island. No less than 292 men and 16 women toiled round 40 miles of island roads in a blazing hot July sun for the annual 'Walkathon' organized by a local newspaper group. Not surprisingly therefore two swimmers and a walker went to Tokyo to represent Hong Kong at the Olympic Games, including So Kam-tong the young Urban Services parks' attendant who had won the walk round the island, Robert Loh winner of the cross-harbour race and Li Hon-yu who was second in the women's section.
Almost every sport known and every team game is played in Hong Kong but by far the greatest following is for association football. Fans turn up twenty thousand strong at the Government