RECREATION AND THE ARTS
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illustrated Hong Kong's history between 1841 and 1941. The exhibition lasted 90 days and was visited by over 140 000 people. Another popular exhibition was Let Them Live: Protect Endangered Species, which focussed on a problem of increasing international concern - the threat of extinction posed to a growing number of plant and animal species by man's over-exploitation of natural resources. A display of lifelike replicas of Hong Kong's prehistoric rock carvings was also mounted in the Tsuen Wan Town Hall. The display formed part of the programme of the Third Tsuen Wan Arts Festival.
A major effort was made during the year to complete the large backlog of work in classifying, cataloguing and documenting specimens and other material held in the archaeological repository. A great deal of this essential work was carried out by voluntary workers from the Hong Kong Archaeological Society.
The other categories of collections continued to expand at a satisfactory rate, one particularly outstanding acquisition being a number of historic Hong Kong banknotes.
The Lei Cheng Uk Branch Museum and Han Tomb became even more popular, notably from visits by an increased number of organised school groups. It attracted 44 959 visitors during the year.
By maintaining its links with a number of local learned societies, the museum arranged an interesting and informative series of jointly sponsored lectures on anthropological, archaeological and other related topics.
Similarly, the museum's association and co-operation with the Antiquities and Monu- ments Section of the Urban Services Department was particularly productive. By the end of the year, more than 400 items, ranging from historic buildings to boundary stones, were documented, photographed and recorded on maps by the section.
Significant progress was made in the restoration of forts at Tung Chung on Lantau Island and on Tung Lung Island; the latter planned to be completed early in 1982.
The year also saw the start of a terrritory-wide archaeological survey conducted in the field by three consultants from abroad and directed by the museum and the Antiquities and Monuments Section.
During the redevelopment of Star House, the museum will move to temporary accom- modation near its offices and workshops in Kowloon Park.
Space Museum
Opened in October 1980, the Hong Kong Space Museum - the first stage of the Tsim Sha Tsui Cultural Complex - provides the public with an exceptional entertainment venue in which knowledge about the universe, space exploration and related sciences is presented through sky shows, exhibitions, public lectures, astronomy classes and telescope observa- tions.
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The museum the first in Asia and the sixth in the world has a most advanced motion-picture projection system for its sky shows in the 316-seat space theatre. The first sky show, A New View of the Universe, drew an audience of 340 461. The succeeding sky show, Odyssey to Planets, shown later in the year attracted a similar audience.
The main exhibition hall on the ground floor displays a wide variety of exhibits, artifacts, models, participatory instruments and audio-visual materials about general astronomy, ancient astronomy, stellar astronomy and space science and explorations. During the year, 421 667 people visited the hall.
The Hall of Solar Sciences, opened in March, is an integral feature of the museum facilities as it marked the beginning of substantial solar observation in Hong Kong. One of its main attractions is a high-precision solar telescope, which offers the public 'live'
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