ENG-2018 — Page 376

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Recreation, Sport, Culture and the Arts

peers, learning to face challenges and be self-reliant. The exercises also foster camaraderie and team spirit.

Hong Kong Youth Hostels Association

The Hong Kong Youth Hostels Association is a non-profit-making organisation providing safe, good-quality and affordable hostel accommodation. It aims to encourage young people to embrace nature through outdoor activities and appreciate different cultures via the hostelling experience and international exchange programmes.

The association plans, runs and markets seven youth hostels. It has more than 30,000 individual and corporate members, and is also an affiliate of Hostelling International, which has over four million members worldwide.

The seven hostels each features different characteristics. The flagship is the YHA Mei Ho House Youth Hostel, which was transformed from a six-storey resettlement block in Shek Kip Mei that formed part of Hong Kong's first public housing.

The association's annual Ngong Ping Charity Walk, held in January at North Lantau Island Country Park, attracted nearly 1,500 participants and raised much needed funds for hostel enhancement, environmental protection and the association's conservation projects.

Sporting Achievements

Hong Kong took its medal tallies at both the 2018 Asian Games and Asian Para Games to new heights, extending its victories to more sports than before. At the Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia, the city clinched 46 medals, comprising eight golds, 18 silvers and 20 bronzes. The men's rugby sevens team and equestrian rider Jacqueline Siu Wing-ying won Hong Kong's first golds in their respective sports, while the squash team outdid themselves with two golds and two silvers, including a gold from Au Chun-ming playing against his teammate Lee Ho-yin in the men's singles finals. Among the cyclists' three golds, four silvers and one bronze, Sarah Lee Wai-sze defended her titles in both the women's keirin and sprint. Gymnast Shek Wai-hung also retained his gold in the men's vault. Other breakthroughs included hurdler Lui Lai-yiu becoming Hong Kong's first female medallist in athletics, Tang Chun-man and Tse Ying-suet winning the city's first silver in badminton mixed doubles, and the fencing team. scoring their best results with two silvers and six bronzes.

At the Asian Para Games in Jakarta, Hong Kong was similarly at its best with 48 medals, consisting of 11 golds, 16 silvers and 21 bronzes. The swimmers won three golds, two silvers and a bronze, with Chan Yui-lam breaking the Asian record in the women's 100m butterfly $14 and Tang Wai-lok breaking the games' record in the men's 200m freestyle S14. The wheelchair fencers collected one gold, three silvers and seven bronzes, while the table tennis team. garnered two golds, three silvers and five bronzes and the badminton players, a gold, a silver and two bronzes.

In other remarkable results, two Hong Kong athletes became world number one - billiard player Ng On-yee and fencer Vivian Kong Man-wai reigned respectively in women's snooker and

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