ENG-1998 — Page 438

RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS

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exhibition, jointly presented by the Occupational Safety and Health Council and the Provisional Urban Council, opened in November.

Also in November, two large inflatable pandas about eight metres tall gave the museum a prominent attraction on its Piazza for its new exhibition Sex Bridging the Circle of Life. The exhibition depicted the key issues of sex, explored various sexual strategies of interesting organisms and introduced the latest development in cloning and reproductive technology.

Starting from July, with the new Video Conference exhibit jointly developed with science museums in Japan, Korea, Singapore and Thailand, museum visitors were able to communicate directly with overseas museums visitors.

Designed for children to explore science through a series of hands-on activities, a new programme called Science Day Camp was launched in summer. In December, a new computer course for introducing hardware technology was launched.

To encourage community involvement in museum activities, the museum jointly presented the Science Alive Lecture Series with the British Council, the Imperial College of the University of London and the Education Department in April. Over 2 300 teachers and students attended the lectures. The museum also organised exhibition programmes in association with local and Mainland associations to promote science education to the local community. These programmes included the Joint School Science Exhibition in July and the Ninth National Scientific Invention and Creation Contest and Science Symposium for Chinese Young People in August.

During the year, the museum's extension activities and travelling exhibitions attracted more than 40 000 participants and visitors.

Hong Kong Space Museum

In April, a planet numbered 6743 was named by the International Astronomical Union in honour of Mr Joseph H. C. Liu, former Chief Curator of the Hong Kong Space Museum, who played a leading role in establishing the museum and in promoting popular astronomy in Hong Kong. The museum launched a sky show Hunting Asteroids with a feature on Mr Liu, and another show Mars: The Quest for Life during the year. In 1998, four Omnimax films, Cosmic Voyage, Special Effects, The Greatest Places and Mysteries of Egypt, and three school shows, The Friendly Sky, The New Solar System and Sun, Moon and Stars were also shown. They attracted more than 421 100 people.

An observation of partial Solar Eclipse was arranged in August in the museum for 1 200 spectators. During the year, the museum organised 170 extension activities with over 11 300 participants. The 56 groups of permanent interactive exhibits in the Ḥalls of Astronomy and Space Science attracted more than 306 500 visitors.

Hong Kong Museum of History

The former Hong Kong Museum of History at Kowloon Park featured a permanent exhibition entitled The Story of Hong Kong, outlining 6 000 years of development of Hong Kong from the New Stone Age to modern times. It attracted 160 056 visitors during the year before closing on September 1.

Construction of the new Hong Kong Museum of History at Chatham Road South has been completed. After the completion of the fabrication of an enhanced