Outside the school system the government is actively promoting recreation and the arts, underlining
its aims in this area by the recent establishment of a Recreation and Culture Division within the Government
Secretariat, which has taken over executive control of the Recreation and Sport Service and the Music Office
and assumed responsibility for the policy aspects of recreation in country parks. In recent years Hong Kong
people have been able to pursue a considerable assortment of cultural, recreational and educational activities
in their leisure time. Among the facilities now
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available in Hong Kong are 21 country parks, covering about 40 per cent of the total land area; the
extensive sporting and cultural facilities of the Urban Council; the rapidly developing Recreation and Sport
Service, with its 17 district offices; Ocean Park (the world's largest oceanarium); the Tsim Sha Tsui
Cultural Centre with its space museum and proposed arts facilities; the City Hall complex with its theatre
and concert hall; the annual Festival of Asian Arts, and the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Hong Kong also has
its own professional orchestras (the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hong Kong Chinese
Orchestra), a flourishing Arts Centre, an Academy of Ballet and a Conservatory of Music. There are now
museums of art and of history, and a Museum of Science and Technology is being planned. The Urban
Council and the Urban Services Department operate 20 public libraries, as well as four mobile libraries and
gramophone and video-cassette libraries: the total stock of books is 1.19 million volumes, and there are
now more than 954,000 registered library members. These services and those provided by cultural
organisations like the British Council and the Goethe-Institute both complement the formal education
system and help to enrich the quality of community life