The LCSD is responsible for maintaining and running a wide array of facilities catering to the recreational and sporting needs of Hong Kong residents. It manages 26 major parks, 41 gazetted beaches, 43 swimming pools, four holiday camps and five water sports centres in Hong Kong. Children’s playground facilities can be found in 633 venues, including parks, gardens and other venues.

Sports facilities managed by the LCSD include two large-scale outdoor stadia and 25 sports grounds, along with 97 sports centres. It also maintains 234 hard-surface soccer pitches, as well as 40 natural turf pitches and 39 artificial turf pitches for this sport. There are also one rugby and two hockey pitches, 256 tennis courts, four golf driving ranges, and 294 squash courts. Details of all these facilities can be found in Appendix 7 of this report.

The Yuen Chau Kok Sports Centre was opened for public use on December 12, 2016. Situated in the low block of the Yuen Chau Kok Complex, it is the sixth indoor sports centre managed by the LCSD in Sha Tin District.

The new sports centre features the district's first indoor bowling green which is divided into four rinks, enabling the public to play lawn bowls regardless of the weather. The sports centre also has a 14-metre outdoor climbing wall with four lanes offering different levels of climbing difficulty. Other facilities include a multi-purpose arena that can be used as two basketball courts, two volleyball courts or eight badminton courts; two multi-purpose activity rooms; a fitness room; a table-tennis room with six table-tennis tables; and a children's play room.

The Yuen Chau Kok Sports Centre opened for public use in December 2016.

The first indoor bowling green in Sha Tin District is now operating at the Yuen Chau Kok Sports Centre.

The leisure angling ancillary facilities in the Central and Western District Promenade (Central Section) under the management of the LCSD was opened for public use in March 2017 following the completion of enhancement works. The enhanced facilities include fishing rod holders, benches, arbours and water dispensers to provide a more pleasant environment for angling activities. Educational display panels on good practices and safety rules for leisure angling have also been installed at the promenade.

Newly installed fishing rod holders on the Central and Western District Promenade (Central Section) are facilitating angling activities by members of the public.

The LCSD manages some 1 570 parks and gardens across Hong Kong. Details of some major parks under its management are as follows:

Hong Kong Park covers 8.16 hectares, and includes a conservatory, an aviary, a squash centre, a sports centre, a children's playground, a Vantage Point, a restaurant, and Olympic Square.

The aviary is home to around 600 birds of 70 different species. Several of these species bred successfully during the year, specifically the Bali Myna, the Java Sparrow and the Nicobar Pigeon. The conservatory includes a Display Plant House, a Dry Plant House and a Humid Plant House, all with environmental controls that simulate the climatic conditions needed by plants from different regions, which attracted about 264 000 visitors in 2016-17. An Orchid Show was held in the Display Plant House from October 2016 to January 2017, at which around 250 orchid plants of over 30 different species were on display, including species such as Phalaenopsis, Paphiopedilum, Oncidium and Vanda.

Around 250 orchids from over 30 species were put on display at the Orchid Show.

Covering an area of over 19 hectares, Victoria Park is the largest park on Hong Kong Island and one of the most well-used parks in Hong Kong. In addition to facilities such as its central lawn, bandstand and pebble walking trail, the park offers many popular sports facilities including a swimming pool complex, soccer pitches, basketball courts, tennis courts, handball cum volleyball courts, roller skating rinks, a bowling green, fitness stations and jogging trails.

The park is a popular spot for community events that draw hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, such as the annual Lunar New Year Fair, the Hong Kong Flower Show and the Urban Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival.

Victoria Park is the venue for many community events, such as the Lunar New Year Fair.

Located in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui, the 13.3-hectare Kowloon Park is the largest park in Kowloon. It provides an array of indoor and outdoor recreational facilities, including a hard-surface soccer pitch, a sports centre and a swimming pool complex.

Among the park’s attractive gardens and walks are a Water Garden, a Sculpture Garden and a Woodland Walk. The Sculpture Walk features displays by local and overseas artists, including a permanent sculpture by Eduardo Paolozzi titled the Concept of Newton. The 240-metre tree walk introduces 35 of Hong Kong's most common flowering tree species.

The park also contains a landscaped bird lake and aviary, which includes a flock of over 100 flamingos and many other bird species, such as Rhinoceros Hornbill, Greater Flamingo and Lesser Flamingo .

The park hosts a number of major events throughout the year, including the Kung Fu Corner each Sunday and the Arts Fun Fair, held on Sundays and public holidays. Regular morning birdwatching activities introduce common bird species in the park. District-wide community events such as carnivals, outdoor exhibitions and entertainment events are regularly held in the piazza, and attract hundreds of thousands of visitors over the year.

The Arts Fun Fair features a number of stalls selling handicrafts and artworks.

The 22-hectare Tai Po Waterfront Park is the largest park managed by the department. Its 32-metre Spiral Lookout Tower offers visitors a panoramic view of Tolo Harbour and the surroundings. Other facilities include a 1 000-metre promenade, an amphitheatre, a central water feature, a sheltered viewing terrace, children’s play areas, bowling greens, a gateball court and a kite-flying area. The park also has a number of themed gardens, including a Floral Display Garden, a Scented Garden, a Malvaceae Garden, a Western Garden, an Ecological Garden, a Palm Garden, a Herb Garden, a Fig Garden, a Camellia Garden, an Anthurium Garden, a Heliconia Garden and a Ginger Garden. Its insect house attracted 41 group visits with a total of 1 600 visitors in 2016-17.

Flowers in blossom at the Tai Po Waterfront Park.

Built on reclaimed land, the 12.5-hectare Tuen Mun Park holds more than 1 900 trees and 120 000 shrubs of various species. It also includes a popular one-hectare artificial lake, and a Reptile House, which attracted 377 000 visitors in 2016-17, including 28 000 group visitors.

Other park facilities include a water cascade, a model boat pool, an amphitheatre, a roller-skating rink, three children’s playgrounds, a conservation corner, a sitting-out area for the elderly, four pebble walking trails, pavilions and a multi-game area.

Enhancement works to the children’s playground are currently underway in Tuen Mun Park. The upgraded children’s facilities will provide children of different ages and abilities with an inclusive and barrier-free environment to play in when it is expected to reopen in 2018.

The inclusive playground at Tuen Mun Park is designed to be suitable for children of different ages and abilities.

In 2016-17, the department carried out a series of park enhancement measures aimed at providing better facilities for users and enhancing various soft landscape features.

More elderly friendly facilities, including elderly fitness equipment and priority seats, have been provided in parks to encourage active ageing and to raise senior citizens’ awareness of the benefits of physical fitness. Thematic groupings of different flowering plants have been widely grown to beautify the landscape and enrich the visual appearance of gardens in major parks. The LCSD also organised a series of Storm the Park recreational activities which included a Frisbee Day, and Orienteering@Park and Fitness@Park events. The 12 roving fun days of orienteering and fitness were organised in January and February 2017 in 12 districts, attracting over 5 000 participants.

The Storm the Park campaign includes a range of outdoor programmes to encourage the public to take part in a variety of different recreation and sports activities.

Children taking part in orienteering activities during a roving fun day held at Kowloon Park.

In early 2017, the department set up a new dedicated webpage ‘Let’s hit the Park’ (www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/lhtp/index.html) showcasing the special features of its major parks, as well as announcing leisure activities to be held in the parks. Adopting a highly user-oriented approach, the new webpage gives members of the public easy access to information about the highlights of all major parks, sortable according to their interests.

Currently, 44 of the LCSD’s leisure venues include pet gardens, where dog owners can bring their pets for off-leash fun and exercise. The department is continuing to identify suitable sites for more of these, in consultation with District Councils. In 2016-17, three new pet gardens were opened to the public. They are located in the Tai Yip Street Garden in Kwun Tong, Hung Tak Road Sitting-out Area No. 2 in Yuen Long, and Kwok Shui Road Park in Tsuen Wan.

In 2016-17, more than 13.66 million visits were made to beaches and around 14.05 million visits to public swimming pools managed by the department.

The reprovisioned Kennedy Town Swimming Pool Phase II, which now includes an indoor secondary pool, an indoor training pool and an indoor Jacuzzi, was opened to the public in February 2017. The indoor facilities complement the existing Phase I outdoor swimming pool, with facilities that include a secondary pool and a leisure pool.

To raise awareness of water sports safety, the department co-organised a series of campaigns and activities during the year in collaboration with the Hong Kong Life Saving Society and other relevant government departments.

The reprovisioned Kennedy Town Swimming Pool includes indoor heated swimming facilities that enable the public to enjoy the fun of swimming in all weathers.

The LCSD manages five water sports centres (Chong Hing, Stanley Main Beach, St Stephen's Beach, Tai Mei Tuk and the Jockey Club Wong Shek) and four holiday camps (Lady MacLehose Holiday Village, Sai Kung Outdoor Recreation Centre, Tso Kung Tam Outdoor Recreation Centre and Lei Yue Mun Park). During the year, 124 000 people participated in programmes at the water sports centres, while about 498 600 enjoyed the facilities at the holiday camps, among which about 35 600 people took part in evening camps. The department organises evening camps so that people can participate in activities outside office hours.

Regular canoeing courses were held at the Chong Hing Water Sports Centre.

Lei Yue Mun Park offers fine views of European-style buildings set amidst trees and shrubs.

Hong Kong Stadium, with a capacity of 40 000, is a major venue for sports and community events. Twenty events were held at the Stadium in 2016-17, attracting 209 000 spectators in total. Major events included an invitation football match between South China Football Team and Juventus Football Club, the Lunar New Year Cup 2017 between Kitchee, FC Seoul, SCG Muangthong United and Auckland City, and the famous Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament. A number of other football and community events were also held at the Stadium.

The annual Hong Kong Sevens tournament is one of the city’s most popular sporting events.

Mong Kok Stadium has a seating capacity of 6 668 and serves as one of the main venues for the Hong Kong Premier League and as the training ground for the national football squad. A total of 59 events were held at the stadium in 2016-17, including the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League, the AFC Cup, the East Asian Football Federation E-1 Football Championship 2017 Round 2, and two international friendly matches between Hong Kong and the national teams of Cambodia and Singapore. A total of 363 000 patrons visited the venue in the year.

The Hong Kong Velodrome provides a 250-metre indoor cycling track with a seating capacity of 3 000 and supporting facilities of international standards, together with a multi-purpose arena. It also incorporates sports facilities that include a fitness room, a table-tennis room, a dance room and a children's play room. The velodrome is an important training base for the Hong Kong Cycling Team, and regularly hosts large-scale and high-level track-cycling competitions.

Members of the public can use the department's Leisure Link System to book leisure facilities and enrol in community recreation and sports programmes either online, over the telephone, or at booking counters throughout the territory. Self-service kiosks have been set up where users can access Leisure Link using their Smart Identity Cards, and pay for the services they use by Octopus card. Currently 47 LCSD venues have self-service kiosks, with nine on Hong Kong Island, 15 in Kowloon, and 23 in the New Territories.

In addition, counter services are available at 143 recreational venues and 18 District Leisure Services Offices, where members of the public can book facilities, enrol in recreational programmes and get queries regarding facilities and sports programmes answered.

The department has installed AEDs at all fee charging and non-fee charging land-based facilities with active sports facilities. Public access is available in emergencies. A total of 366 leisure venues (including land-based and aquatic venues, holiday camps, water sports centres and recreation and sports centres) have now had AEDs installed. We continue to review the provision of AEDs at our venues, and are considering installing more AEDs at other popular venues, with priority being given to waterfront promenades with large numbers of visitors.

By the end of March 2017, the department had set up 283 Work Improvement Teams at district leisure venues, each tasked with carrying out both self-initiated and department-directed improvements. This scheme has been very successful, and the department is continuing to support the work of these teams at all major leisure venues, including holiday camps, water sports centres, swimming pools, beaches, sports centres, parks and playgrounds.

The Free Use Scheme continued in 2016-17. Its aim is to maximise usage of certain recreational facilities by allowing eligible organisations free access to the main arenas and activity rooms of all sports centres, squash courts, hockey pitches, outdoor bowling greens and obstacle golf courses between opening and 5 pm on weekdays (except public holidays), from September 1 to June 30 of the following year. Eligible organisations include schools, National Sports Associations, district sports associations and subvented non-governmental organisations.

The department provides National Squad Training Centres for 39 associations, where a wide range of training facilities is made available for both individual athletes and national squads.