ENG-1994 — Page 444

RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS

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The permanent exhibition The Story of Hong Kong, which traces 6 000 years of develop- ment in Hong Kong from the Stone Age to modern times, attracted 199 000 visitors.

The museum's educational activities included lectures, demonstrations, video shows, workshops, traditional handicraft courses and field visits to geological, historic and natural sites in Hong Kong. The third inter-school competition on study projects on local history, with the theme Business Institutions in Hong Kong, was the first joint project between the museum and the Education Department.

The Law Uk Folk Museum introduced a new display of Chinese Folk Woodblock Prints - Paper Horses and attracted 51 000 visitors, while the Lei Cheng Uk Branch Museum with its continuing exhibition on Han Dynasty costumes had 59 000 visitors.

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 500-square-metre village comprises eight domestic units, pig pens, an open courtyard and an entrance gate tower, and is sited on a raised platform about two metres above ground. The village, together with a nearby lime kiln, was gazetted as a monument in 1981. Period furniture and local farming implements are displayed.

A colourful worksheet illustrating the traditional rice cultivation process has been specially designed for students. Despite its remoteness, the museum attracted 65 400 visitors in 1994.

Hong Kong Railway Museum

This open-air museum, occupying an area of 6 600 square metres, is located in the centre of Tai Po Market. It comprises the old Tai Po Market railway station building, six passenger coaches which were in service between 1911 and 1974, and an educational audio-visual room housed in a mock-up of an electric train.

The station building, in Chinese decorative style, was built in 1913 and declared a monument in 1984. An array of railway models was added to the museum in 1994, and its permanent exhibition on Hong Kong's railway history was renovated as well. During the year, 304 000 visitors were attracted to the museum.

Sam Tung Uk Museum

The museum, located a short distance from the Mass Transit Railway terminus in Tsuen Wan, was originally an old Hakka walled village built in 1786. The layout of the 2 000- square-metre village resembles a chequer-board with an entrance wall, an assembly hall and an ancestral hall along the central axis. The village was declared a monument in 1981. After restoration, it was furnished with traditional Hakka furniture and farming implements. The largest museum of its kind in Hong Kong, it attracted 347 000 visitors in 1994.

Two exhibitions were staged at the museum during the year. The Kung Hei Fat Choi Chinese New Year Pictures exhibition comprised 78 selected New Year pictures from the 19th to the early 20th centuries. The history and origin of New Year woodblock prints, as well as their production method, were described in the exhibition.

The second exhibition Flashback --- 80 years of Hong Kong Movies featured historical photographs, house programmes, props and costumes which illustrated the development of local movies.