RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS
In recent years, the educational role of the gardens has been further developed, with numerous school and club visits.
Regional Council Parks
Over 394 parks and gardens of various sizes, including four town parks, are managed by the Regional Council.
Tuen Mun Town Park is the largest park in the New Territories. Occupying an area of 12.5 hectares, the park has an ornamental lake for rowing and a 160-metre water cascade, the largest of its kind in Hong Kong. Other main features include an open-air performance arena, children's playground and skating rink.
North District Central Park covers 9.6 hectares and is provided with a sports hall, amphitheatre, artificial lake and children's playground.
The 8.5 hectare Sha Tin Central Park, with its Chinese garden and adventure play- ground, is the most popular park.
Special features of the 7.5 hectare Yuen Long Town Park include a seven-level pagoda with a built-in aviary which houses more than 210 birds of 50 species. The park also has the first gateball pitch in the Regional Council area.
Country Parks
Despite Hong Kong's largely urban environment, opportunities for outdoor recreation are not lacking in the territory. No place is far from green countryside and there are 21 country parks covering over 40 per cent of the total land area. Over 10 million visits were made to these parks during 1992. They are most popular during the cool, dry months of October to April.
The Director of Agriculture and Fisheries is the Country Parks Authority. With the advice of the Country Parks Board and its various committees, he is responsible for the management of land and provision of the facilities within country parks. These facilities include picnic and barbecue areas, walking trails, rain shelters, toilets, information posts and visitor centres. A new visitor centre was opened at Tai Mo Shan Country Park in January, extending the educational and recreational aspects of the country parks.
Horticulture and Landscape Services
Urban Council
The Urban Council is heavily committed to improving the urban environment with land- scaping. It provides a full range of landscaping services, including design and planning, plant production, planting, maintenance and conservation, all undertaken by its own staff. All new projects undertaken by the council are expected to have a landscape element, where possible. The council also plays a key role in preserving trees in the urban areas and in extending planting areas along the highways.
In 1992, the Urban Council planted about 7 500 trees and 815 200 bamboos, creepers and flowering plants. About 90 per cent of the plants were produced in its own plant nurseries with the balance met by commercial stocks.
In addition to over 400 plant species being used in the council's planting projects, horticultural staff are constantly introducing suitable exotic overseas flora to Hong Kong. In 1992, over 130 new species of plants were introduced from the Philippines, South Africa,
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