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Recreation, Sport, Culture and the Arts

final under the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). In the summer, four English Premier League football clubs, namely Liverpool FC, Leicester City FC, West Bromwich Albion FC and Crystal Palace FC, visited Hong Kong to compete for the Premier League Asia Trophy 2017.

Mong Kok Stadium

The 6,668-seat Mong Kok Stadium is an important venue for sporting and community events. It is one of the major venues for the Hong Kong Premier League and the training ground for the football national squad. Events hosted in 2017 included international football tournaments in the AFC Champions League 2017 group stage and three friendly matches between Hong Kong and Jordan, Laos and Bahrain.

Water Sports Centres and Holiday Camps

The LCSD manages five water sports centres: Chong Hing, Tai Mei Tuk, The Jockey Club Wong Shek, St Stephen's Beach and Stanley Main Beach. Events held at these centres draw more than 120,000 participants annually. The department also runs four holiday camps: the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village, Sai Kung Outdoor Recreation Centre, Tso Kung Tam Outdoor Recreation Centre and Lei Yue Mun Park. These holiday camps attract about half a million day visitors and overnight guests every year.

Beaches and Swimming Pools

Swimming is one of Hong Kong's most popular summer pastimes. The department manages 41 gazetted public beaches and 44 public swimming pool complexes.

Other Recreation and Sports Venues

The department manages 99 sports centres, 256 tennis courts, 292 squash courts, 25 sports grounds, four driving ranges and two public riding schools. Works for eight other major projects are under way.

Recreation and Sports Organisations

Hong Kong Sports Institute Limited

The sports institute seeks to provide an environment in which sports talent can be identified and nurtured. Its state-of-the-art facilities enable the training of high-performance athletes. Other forms of support given to athletes include coaching and training, sports science and sports medicine, and education and employment training. The institute's Elite Training Programme renders dedicated support to athletes in 19 Tier A sports: athletics, badminton, billiard sports, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, karatedo, rowing, rugby sevens, sailing, skating, squash, swimming, table tennis, tennis, tenpin bowling, triathlon, windsurfing and wushu. It also supports athletes in 13 Tier B sports: dance sports, dragon boat, equestrian, golf, judo, kart, lawn bowls, life saving, mountaineering, orienteering, roller sports, shuttlecock and taekwondo. Outstanding athletes whose sports fall outside these two tiers are covered under an Individual Athletes Support Scheme and a Disabled Sports Elite Training Programme.

The institute's $7 billion Elite Athletes Development Fund offers a sustainable long-term source of financial support for the institute's operation.

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