RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS
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central axis. The village, also a declared monument, was furnished with traditional Hakka furniture and farming implements. The museum is the largest of its kind in Hong Kong and attracted 377 959 visitors in 1996.
Hong Kong Railway Museum
This open-air museum is in the town centre of Tai Po Market. It consists of the old Tai Po Market railway station building and six historic passenger coaches. The station building, in Chinese decorative style, was built in 1913 and declared a monument in 1984. It attracted 331 417 visitors during the year.
Sheung Yiu Folk Museum
This museum at a scenic spot in Sai Kung is housed in a fortified Hakka village built in the late 19th century. The village has eight domestic units, pig pens, an open courtyard and an entrance gate tower, and is on a platform about two metres above ground. The village and a nearby lime kiln were gazetted as a monument in 1981. Despite its remoteness, the museum attracted 86 407 visitors in 1996.
Heritage Museum
The Regional Council Heritage Museum, now under construction in Sha Tin, will be the largest of its kind in Hong Kong and will help develop and enrich cultural life in the territory. It is being built by modern methods to a traditional Chinese courtyard design.
When completed in 1999, it will have a gross floor area of 26 700 square metres including a net exhibition area of 7 200 square metres. Highlights of the museum will include a History Hall featuring the heritage of the New Territories, a Cantonese Opera Hall, a T.T. Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art, a Chao Shao-an Art Gallery, and a Children's Discovery Gallery.
Exhibitions
Two large-scale exhibitions were staged in the Sha Tin Town Hall in 1996. The exhibition Van Lau Sculptures and Paintings presented 80 of the artist's sculptures, models, paintings and drawings. The second exhibition, Empress Dowager, featured 100 items lent by the Palace Museum, Beijing. It showed the daily life of this powerful Empress, including her clothing, diet, entertainment and make-up.
Another thematic exhibition, Art & Craft: Chinese Folk Festivals in Hong Kong, was staged at the Sam Tung Uk Museum during the year. Traditional Chinese festival handicrafts, including sculpture, paper figurines, embroidery, calligraphy and painting, which were so much part of the life in Hong Kong in the 1950s and '60s, were splendidly re-created. It attracted 304 998 visitors.
Heritage
The Antiquities Advisory Board and its executive arm, the Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO) continue to promote public awareness of the importance of Hong Kong's cultural and historical heritage through exhibitions, guided tours, publications, local studies and community involvement projects.
The Secretary for Broadcasting, Culture and Sport is the Antiquities Authority who implements the provisions of the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance as well as