ENG-2019 — Page 369

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Recreation, Sport, Culture and the Arts

The junk plies within Hong Kong waters, and each training trip lasts one to three days. The training regime is designed carefully to cope with different weather conditions and the special needs of young people with different aptitudes and backgrounds. Guided by instructors, participants become members of the ship's supplementary crew and work alongside their 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 encourages 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 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 in North Lantau Island Country Park, attracted nearly 1,500 participants and raised much needed funds for hostel enhancement, environmental protection and conservation projects.

Sporting Achievements

Hong Kong athletes attained outstanding achievements in 2019. Cyclist Sarah Lee Wai-sze captured gold medals in both the sprint and keirin events in the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Track Championships, and also clinched eight medals in the six UCI Track Cycling World Cup events of the year. She was ranked world number one in women's keirin and sprint, the first such achievement in Hong Kong's cycling history. The cycling team secured five and nine medals in the Asian Road Championships and Asian Track Championships respectively. Billiard player Ng On-yee won a gold in the International Billiards and Snooker Federation's World Snooker Championships and ranked second in the world. The wushu team returned from the World Wushu Championships in Shanghai with five golds, four silvers and a bronze. Fencer Vivian Kong Man-wai won a bronze in the epee event in the World Fencing Championships. The fencing team also won a silver and three bronzes in the Asian Fencing Championships. In table tennis, both the mixed doubles pair of Wong Chun-ting and Doo Hoi-kem and the men's doubles pair of Wong Chun-ting and Ho Kwan-kit held the world number one spot during part of the year. Para badminton athletes Chan Ho-yuen, Chu Man-kai and Wong Chun-yim won a gold and two silvers in the Badminton World Federation's Para-Badminton World Championships. Mr Chan, ranked world number two, was named one of Ten Outstanding Young Persons by the Junior Chamber International Hong Kong.

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