ENG-1995 — Page 420

RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS

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project began during the year. Planning also began on the construction of a museum at the 19th century Lei Yue Mun Fort to tell the story of coastal defence in the Hong Kong region since the Ming dynasty.

Conservation Section

The Conservation Section continued to provide essential preservation and conservation services to Urban Council museums in six purpose-equipped labora- tories at the Museum of Art and the Museum of History. The section treated a total of 1 520 museum objects in 1995, including easel paintings, paper artefacts, textiles, sculptures, metals, ceramics, and ethnographic objects were given conservation treatment.

Hong Kong Film Archive

The Urban Council decided in December 1992 to set up the Hong Kong Film Archive at an estimated cost of $110 million. The archive building, at Sai Wan Ho, is scheduled to be completed in late 1998. Hong Kong is the third-largest film production centre in the world, and the Archive will preserve the territory's rich film heritage.

The Archive will not only acquire, preserve, catalogue, research and document Hong Kong films and related material, but will also encourage public access to its collection through film programmes and exhibitions. The archive planning office has already acquired more than 800 films and 20 000 items of related material, mainly through donations and deposits by owners.

Regional Council Museums

Sam Tung Uk Museum

The museum lies a short distance from the Mass Transit Railway terminus in Tsuen Wan and was originally a Hakka walled village built in 1786. The layout of the 2 000- square-metre village resembles a chequerboard with an entrance hall, an assembly hall and an ancestral hall along the central axis. The village was declared a monument in 1981 because of its historical significance. It was furnished with traditional Hakka furniture and farming implements. The museum is the largest of its kind in Hong Kong and attracted 227 200 visitors in 1995.

Hong Kong Railway Museum

This open-air museum, covering 6 500 square metres, is in the town centre of Tai Po Market. It consists of the old Tai Po Market railway station building, six passenger coaches dating from 1911 to 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. It attracted 380 400 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 500-square-metre 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

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