RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS
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With regard to the two branch museums, the Law Uk Folk Museum was visited by 47 500 people, and a total of 68 000 visitors was recorded in the Lei Cheng Uk Branch Museum.
Sheung Yiu Folk Museum
Situated at a scenic spot in Sai Kung, this museum is housed in a fortified Hakka village built in the late 19th century. The village comprises eight domestic units, pig pens, an open courtyard and an entrance gate tower, and is situated on a raised platform about two metres above ground level. The village, together with a nearby lime kiln, was gazetted as a monument in 1981. Period furniture and local farming implements are displayed. Despite its remoteness, the museum attracted 79 417 visitors in 1991.
The Hong Kong Railway Museum
This open air museum, occupying an area of 6 500 square metres, is located at the town. centre of Tai Po Market. It comprises the old Tai Po Market Railway Station building, six passenger coaches dating from 1911 to 1974 and an educational audio-visual room housed in a mock-up of an electric train. The station building, in unique Chinese decorative style, was built in 1913. About 331 476 visited the museum in 1991.
- Sam Tung Uk Museum
The museum, located in Tsuen Wan, was originally an old Hakka walled village built in 1786 by the Chan family. The layout of the village resembles a chequer-board with an entrance hall, an assembly hall and an ancestral hall along the central axis. Because of its historical significance, the village was declared a monument in 1981. After restoration, it was furnished with traditional Hakka furniture and farming implements. As the largest museum of its kind in the territory, it attracted 456 488 visitors locally and overseas in 1991.
Three exhibitions were staged at the museum during the year. An exhibition on Chinese Traditional Vernacular Architecture introduced the various facets and significance of local and Chinese architectural heritage while another exhibition entitled The Way We Were was staged in the museum's side houses to recreate the atmosphere of a village house and to introduce the life style of those who lived before us.
Antiquities Advisory Board
The Antiquities Advisory Board has 15 appointed members drawn from a variety of backgrounds. They include archaeologists, historians, architects, anthropologists, planners and curators. The board advises the government on which sites and structures merit protection through declaration as monuments.
A number of historical buildings, including Kang Yung Shu Uk at Sha Tau Kok and the former Kowloon British School at Tsim Sha Tsui were declared as monuments during the year. The latter, after restoration, will become the permanent home of the Antiquities and Monuments Office and a resource centre for heritage preservation work in Hong Kong. The Antiquities Advisory Board also examined all old fire stations, hospitals and clinics and graded them in accordance with their historical significance, architectural merits and other pertinent factors.