17
Recreation
Most of this book is a record of work, a story of people building and manufacturing and trading. This chapter is about those 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—mahjong. In hundreds of back-streets, in shops and small businesses where family and em- ployees live and eat together, it seems that no sooner are the shutters drawn at the end of the day than the clatter of the mahjong tiles begins.
Outdoors in Hong Kong, more and more young people are spending their leisure time in sports and recreation common to youth the world over. High on the list come swimming and walking, which account for the two biggest sporting events of the year. At the 53rd annual cross-harbour race this year a record 510 com- petitors leaped into the water at Kowloon Public Pier to swim the 1,600 yards to Queen's Pier on Hong Kong Island. A total of 356 competitors, including 16 women, toiled round 40 miles of island roads for the annual 'Walkathon' organized by a local newspaper group. The event was won for the fourth consecutive time by So Kam-tong, an Urban Services park attendant who represented the Colony at the Olympic Games in 1964. Two sisters, Chung Sau-chun and Chung Sau-fong, took the first two places in the women's section.
Almost every sport and team game is played in Hong Kong, but by far the greatest following is for association football. Fans turn up 20,000 strong at the Government Stadium and 10,000 strong at the nearby South China Athletic Stadium for big matches. Football in Hong Kong has all the partisan fervour, and not a few of the troubles, of football anywhere. Hockey also is played with skill by people of all nationalities in Hong Kong, including women's teams. Many of those who shine in competitive sport
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