ENG-2005 — Page 494

428 Recreation, Sport and the Arts

District Councils, schools and members of the public. The show has been growing in size, content and popularity every year.

Apart from numerous pleasing landscape displays, artistic floral arrangements and colourful horticultural exhibits, a rich diversity of educational and recreational fringe activities were organised at the 2005 show for the enjoyment of visitors of all ages. In addition, various types of plants and horticultural products are on sale in commercial stalls inside the showground. More than 170 local Mainland and overseas horticultural organisations from 18 countries took part in the 2005 show held in March at Victoria Park and it attracted more than 460 000 visitors. The overseas participants included floral art masters from Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Malaysia and Norway, arboriculturists from the United States and music and dance performers from South Africa and the Philippines.

Horticulture and Landscape Services/Projects

The LCSD is responsible for improving the environment of Hong Kong through the planting of ornamental trees and shrubs in public gardens and roadside amenity areas, and the preservation of trees. It maintains all public open spaces in the form of parks, gardens, sports grounds, football pitches and children's playgrounds, amenity plots and soft landscape plantings alongside highways and public roads. The services provided include landscape planting, horticultural research, tree maintenance and conservation. During the year, the department planted 15 000 trees and 3.15 million. shrubs and seasonal flowers and carried out landscape improvement projects for 45 hectares of park land and roadside amenity areas, including footbridges.

Beautification of Footbridges

To enhance urban greenery and improve the environment around existing footbridges, the LCSD has introduced an annual improvement programme at footbridges in various districts by planting flowering plants in portable planters. The 2005 programme was completed in November, covering seven footbridges.

Community Garden Programme

By the end of the year, the Community Garden Programme had been extended to 18 districts to encourage the public to participate in greening activities at the community level and to adopt such practices as part of daily life. It was also designed to arouse public awareness of environmental

of environmental protection through gardening participation activities. One community garden was established in each district and a total of 29 gardening courses were organised with around 5 000 participants in 2005.

Summer Youth Programme

The Summer Youth Programme is a large-scale community building programme which provides a variety of activities in the summer vacation for children and young people aged from six to 25. The 2005 slogan was 'Creativity and Vitality in Action', and the focus was on sports, cultural and art activities to inspire and enhance the self-confidence and creativity of young people. In addition, all-round development