Recreational and Sports Facilities

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Recreational and Sports Facilities

The LCSD maintains and operates numerous facilities that serve Hong Kong’s recreational and sporting needs. It manages 26 major parks, 41 gazetted beaches, 44 swimming pools, four holiday camps and five water sports centres. It also develops and maintains children’s playground facilities in 638 locations, such as parks and gardens.

The LCSD manages two large-scale outdoor stadia, 25 sports grounds, and 99 sports centres. It also maintains 234 hard-surface soccer pitches as well as 79 turf pitches. Specialist facilities for other sports include one rugby and two hockey pitches, 256 tennis courts, four golf driving ranges, and 292 squash courts. Details of these facilities can be found in Appendix 7 of this report.

New Facilities

The new Harbour Road Sports Centre in Wan Chai opened for public use on May 8, 2017 following the completion of its reprovisioning works to facilitate the construction of Shatin to Central Link. The leisure facilities at this sports centre include a multi-purpose arena that can be set up as two basketball courts, two volleyball courts, two netball courts or eight badminton courts; two dance rooms; five squash courts (three of which also serve as activity rooms); a table tennis room with seven table tennis tables; and a fitness room.

The new Yuen Long Sports Centre opened for public use on June 6, 2017, becoming the seventh indoor sports centre managed by the LCSD in Yuen Long District. The sports centre is situated on the third and fourth floors of the Yuen Long Leisure and Cultural Building, occupying a total area of 7 600 square metres. The fourth floor contains a multi-purpose arena that can be used as two basketball courts, two volleyball courts or eight badminton courts, while the third floor provides two multi-purpose activity rooms, a fitness room, a table tennis room and a children’s play room.

The Tsing Yi Southwest Leisure Building opened for public use on July 26, 2017, and contains a sports centre and an indoor 25-metre heated swimming pool with six swimming lanes. The sports centre includes a multi-purpose arena that can be used as two basketball courts, two volleyball courts or eight badminton courts, two multi-purpose activity rooms, two dance rooms, a children’s play room, and a 15-metre outdoor climbing wall with eight lanes of different levels of difficulty. Its unique and environmentally friendly design won the building a Merit Award (Community Building) at the Hong Kong Institute of Architects Annual Awards 2016/17.

New leisure angling ancillary facilities located near the public pier at the end of the Tai Po Waterfront Park promenade opened for public use in May 2017. The new facilities include fishing rod holders and benches to provide a pleasant angling environment, while newly installed educational display panels lay out good practices and safety rules for leisure angling.

Parks

Park Enhancements

In 2017-18, the LCSD continued with park enhancement measures to enhance facilities and improve soft landscape features.

These measures included the provision of more elderly friendly facilities, such as elderly fitness equipment and priority seats, to encourage active and healthy ageing and raise senior citizens’ awareness of the benefits of keeping fit. In some major parks, thematic groupings of different flowering plants have been established to enrich the appearance of the gardens. The LCSD also organised a series of Storm the Park recreational activities during the year which included Flower Viewing and Sketching@Lai Chi Kok Park, Splish Splash@Tin Yip Road Park, Toy Formula 1@Victoria Park and Family Camp under the Stars@Tai Po Waterfront Park. These four programmes attracted over 7 000 participants in total.

The LCSD manages 1 579 parks and gardens across Hong Kong. The major parks under its management are described below.

Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens

The 5.6-hectare Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens sits on a hillside overlooking Central District. The zoo has a population of approximately 160 birds, 70 mammals and 20 reptiles. It is a conservation centre for 34 species of endangered animals, and its De Brazza’s monkeys bred successfully during the year.

The gardens contain some 600 species of trees, shrubs, creepers and foliage, and include a herb garden and a greenhouse. Guided tours of the gardens are run regularly. An education and exhibition centre on the site holds regular displays of botanical and zoological specimens, and provides teaching facilities.

The Veterinary Section, with its clinic in the gardens, is responsible for taking care of all animals kept in the parks under the LCSD's purview.

The Meet the Zookeepers event organised in the gardens was once again warmly welcomed by members of the public, with some 1 500 visitors taking part in the activity in the year.

Hong Kong Park

The 8.16-hectare Hong Kong Park includes an aviary and a conservatory, along with extensive gardens and water features. Facilities for park visitors include a squash centre, a sports centre, a children’s playground and a restaurant.

The aviary houses around 550 birds of 70 different species. The Bali Myna, the Pied Imperial Pigeon and the Common Pheasant all bred successfully during the year. The conservatory has a Display Plant House, a Dry Plant House and a Humid Plant House, and attracted about 262 000 visitors in 2017-18. A Begonia Show was held in the Display Plant House from December 2017 to mid-January 2018. Around 300 begonias of over 50 different species were put on display at the show, including species such as Begonia cucullata, Rieger Begonia, Begonia rex-cultorum and a distinctive native species, Begonia hongkongensis.

Victoria Park

Spread over more than 19 hectares, Victoria Park is the largest park on Hong Kong Island and one of the most well-used parks in Hong Kong. The park contains 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 popular for large-scale community events such as the annual Lunar New Year Fair, the Hong Kong Flower Show and the Urban Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival.

Kowloon Park

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

The park’s attractive gardens and walks include a Water Garden, a Sculpture Garden, a Woodland Walk and a Tree Walk. The Sculpture Garden and the adjacent Sculpture Walk features displays by local and overseas artists, including a permanent sculpture by Eduardo Paolozzi titled The Concept of Newton. The 125-metre Tree Walk introduces visitors to 35 of Hong Kong’s most common flowering tree species.

The park also contains a landscaped bird lake and aviary, home to a flock of over 100 Greater and Lesser Flamingos and many other bird species, including the Rhinoceros Hornbill.

The park hosts events throughout the year, including a Kung Fu Corner each Sunday and an 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.

Tai Po Waterfront Park

The 22-hectare Tai Po Waterfront Park is the largest park managed by the LCSD. Its facilities include a 1 000-metre promenade, an amphitheatre, an insect house, a central water feature, a sheltered viewing terrace, children’s play areas, fitness stations, jogging trails, bowling greens, a gateball court and a kite-flying area. Its 32-metre Spiral Lookout Tower offers visitors a panoramic view of Tolo Harbour and the surroundings. The park contains several themed gardens, including a Floral Display, a Scented Garden, a Malvaceae Garden, a Western Garden, an Ecological Garden, a Palm Garden, a Herbs Garden, a Fig Garden, a Camellia Garden, an Anthurium Garden, a Heliconia Garden and a Ginger Garden. Apart from individual citizens, the insect house also attracted 41 group visits with 1 700 visitors in 2017-18.

Tuen Mun Park

The 12.5-hectare Tuen Mun Park contains more than 1 700 trees and 120 000 shrubs of various species, along with a one-hectare artificial lake. It holds a popular Reptile House which attracted 335 000 visitors in 2017-18, 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 are currently being carried out at the park’s children’s playground, which is expected to reopen in 2018. The upgraded children’s facilities will provide an inclusive and barrier-free environment for children of different ages and abilities.

Pet Gardens

Pet gardens are available in 46 of the LCSD’s leisure venues. Dog owners can use these fenced spaces to give their pets off-leash fun and exercise. The LCSD is working to identify suitable sites for more pet gardens, in consultation with DCs. In 2017-18, two new pet gardens were opened, one in the Fung Mat Road Sitting-out Area in Central and Western District, and the other in the Waterloo Road/Ferry Street Sitting-out Area in Yau Tsim Mong District.

Beaches and Swimming Pools

In 2017-18, members of the public made more than 13.09 million visits to beaches and around 14.23 million visits to public swimming pools managed by the LCSD.

The new Tsing Yi Southwest Swimming Pool, which includes an indoor training pool, opened for use by members of the public in July 2017.

To raise awareness of water safety, the LCSD collaborated with the Hong Kong Life Saving Society and other relevant government departments to organise a series of water safety campaigns and activities during the year.

Water Sports Centres and Holiday Camps

The LCSD manages five water sports centres, namely Chong Hing, Stanley Main Beach, St Stephen’s Beach, Tai Mei Tuk, and the Jockey Club Wong Shek. During the year, 120 000 people participated in programmes at these centres.

It also manages four holiday camps: the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village, the Sai Kung Outdoor Recreation Centre, the Tso Kung Tam Outdoor Recreation Centre and Lei Yue Mun Park. Around 502 000 people took advantage of the holiday camp facilities across the year, among which about 37 500 participated in evening camps organised by the LCSD so that people could participate in activities outside office hours.

Other Venues for Staging Major Sports Events

Stadia

Hong Kong Stadium, with a capacity of 40 000, is one of Hong Kong’s biggest venues for sports and community events. Twenty-five events were held at the stadium in 2017-18, attracting 426 248 spectators in total. Major events included an invitation football match between Kitchee and Tottenham Hotspur; the Premier League Asia Trophy 2017 between Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Liverpool and West Bromwich Albion; some Asian Cup 2019 Qualifier Group B matches; various Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League 2018 group stage matches; and the famous Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament. A number of other football matches were held at the stadium, along with a range of religious and community events.

Mong Kok Stadium, with a seating capacity of 6 668, is one of the main venues for the Hong Kong Premier League and serves as the training ground for the national football squad. A total of 53 events were held at the stadium in 2017-18, including the AFC Champions League 2017 group stage matches, the AFC Champions League 2018 preliminary stage match, and three international friendly matches between Hong Kong and the national teams of Jordan, Laos and Bahrain. A total of 344 000 patrons visited the stadium in 2017-18.

Hong Kong Velodrome

The Hong Kong Velodrome holds a 250-metre indoor cycling track with a seating capacity of 3 000 and international-standard supporting facilities, and a multi-purpose arena. It also incorporates a fitness room, a table tennis room, a dance room and a children’s play room. The velodrome is the main training base for the Hong Kong Cycling Team, and regularly hosts large-scale and high-level track-cycling competitions. The 2017 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, one of the highest level world cycling events, was held from April 12 to 16, 2017, with over 370 elite cyclists from 42 countries and regions competing.

Venue Management Initiatives and Improvements

Leisure Link

The LCSD’s Leisure Link System can be used to book leisure facilities and enrol in community recreation and sports programmes online, over the telephone, or at booking counters throughout the territory. Self-service kiosks are available for users, providing access to Leisure Link through Smart Identity Cards, with payment for services 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.

Counter services are also available at 143 recreational venues and 18 District Leisure Services Offices. Members of the public can use these to book facilities, enrol in recreational programmes and enquire about facilities and sports programmes.

In February 2018, the LCSD launched a mobile version of the Leisure Link e-Services System. This new service improves access to the system by enabling members of the public to use smartphones or mobile devices to book leisure facilities and enrol in recreation and sports programmes.

Sports Turf Management

The LCSD’s Sports Turf Management Section provides professional advice and technical support for the management and maintenance of the natural turf pitches under the care of the LCSD. These include the pitch at Hong Kong Stadium and pitches designated for use by the Hong Kong Premier League. The LCSD provides its turf management staff with regular local and overseas training on turf management and maintenance. The work of the section has led to measurable improvements in the quality of sports turf at all the LCSD’s pitches, especially the Hong Kong Premier League venues. The turf pitch at Hong Kong Stadium remained in excellent condition throughout the 2017 Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament, and the pitch at the Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground was brought to a standard that allowed it to host the Hong Kong T20 Blitz Cricket Tournament in February 2018, an event recognised by the International Cricket Council in 2016 as a qualified One Day International event.

Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) at Land-based Venues

The LCSD has installed AEDs at the vast majority of its land-based facilities with active sports facilities, both fee charging and non-fee charging, with public access available in emergencies. A total of 370 leisure venues (including land-based and aquatic venues, holiday camps, water sports centres and recreation and sports centres) have now had AEDs installed. We regularly review the provision of AEDs, and continue to install more AEDs at other popular venues, with priority being given to waterfront promenades with large numbers of visitors.

Work Improvement Teams

The LCSD had 286 Work Improvement Teams at district leisure venues at the end of March 2018. Their role is to carry out both self-initiated and department-directed improvements to services and facilities. This successful scheme is operating at all major leisure venues, including holiday camps, water sports centres, swimming pools, beaches, sports centres, parks and playgrounds.

Free Use Scheme

The Free Use Scheme, aimed at maximising the usage of certain recreational facilities, continued throughout 2017-18. The scheme gives 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. Users eligible under the scheme include schools, National Sports Associations, district sports associations and subvented non-governmental organisations.

Facilities for National Sports Associations

The LCSD provides National Squad Training Centres for 39 associations. These centres are equipped with a wide range of training facilities for both individual athletes and national squads.