23 RECREATION, SPORTS
AND THE ARTS
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RECREATION, sport and cultural activities enhance the quality of life in Hong Kong. The government aims to create an environment in which diversity, freedom of expression, artistic creativity and sporting excellence can thrive.
The major sporting and cultural bodies spent much of 1996 formulating plans for the development of their respective fields into the next century.
The Hong Kong Arts Development Council was established as an independent statutory body on June 1, 1995, and published its first Five-Year Strategic Plan in December 1995.
After publishing its first strategic plan in 1991, the Hong Kong Sports Development Board published its second strategic plan in October 1995. It outlines a range of initiatives planned for the years 1996 to 2000 to ensure co-ordinated sports development. The broad thrust of the plan is to focus on nurturing athletic talent, encouraging greater participation in sports, and promoting the education of children, parents and teachers about the importance of sport and physical recreation in and out of school.
It was an historic year for Hong Kong athletes who took part in the centennial Olympic Games and the Paralympics in Atlanta. Miss Lee Lai-shan won a gold medal in the Women's Mistral Class (boardsailing) event, to become the first medallist from Hong Kong since the territory started taking part in the Olympic Games in 1952. Mr Ben Cheung Wai-leung, a fireman who took up fencing after losing a leg while trying to rescue a woman during a typhoon in 1983, won four gold medals in the Paralympics.
Other highlights of the year included the completion and opening of the territory's first public golf course on Kau Sai Chau island in October. The government also began to co-ordinate the development of new sporting and recreational venues on four former landfill sites in East Kowloon, Tseung Kwan O and Tai Po and conducted a study aimed at boosting the Hong Kong Sports Institute's ability to support a programme for training local athletes to international standards.
Hong Kong residents have access to a wide range of leisure activities, many of which are provided by the Urban and Regional Councils. The two councils are autonomous bodies empowered to formulate policies for the provision and management of cultural and recreational facilities in their respective areas. They build and operate games halls, sports grounds, swimming pools, parks, museums, libraries and other recreational venues. They also organise and support a host of cultural, sporting and recreational programmes and events.