The Leisure and Cultural Services Department today (January 21) announced the special opening hours for its 12 museums (excluding the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence, which are currently closed), Oi!, the Hong Kong Film Archive and the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre during the Lunar New Year holidays.
           
     Details of the opening hours are as follows:
 
February 4 (Lunar New Year's Eve)
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     The Hong Kong Museum of History, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, the Hong Kong Science Museum, the Hong Kong Space Museum, the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware, the Hong Kong Railway Museum, the Sam Tung Uk Museum, the Sheung Yiu Folk Museum, the Fireboat Alexander Grantham Exhibition Gallery, the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum, the Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb Museum, the Law Uk Folk Museum, Oi!, the Hong Kong Film Archive and the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre will close at 5pm.
     
February 5 and 6 (the first two days of the Lunar New Year)
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     All the aforementioned venues will be closed.
 
February 7 (the third day of the Lunar New Year)
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     Apart from the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre, which will remain closed, all the aforementioned venues will open as usual.
 
February 8 (the fourth day of the Lunar New Year)
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     All the aforementioned venues will resume normal opening hours.
 

     The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) announced today (January 21) that its parks and playgrounds will remain open during the Lunar New Year holiday period.

     However, sports centres, various fee-charging land-based facilities, swimming pools and water sports centres will be closed during the first three days of the Lunar New Year (February 5 to 7). Services at gazetted beaches will also be suspended. Stadia and all sports grounds will be closed unless advance bookings have been made.

     Holiday camps will be closed during the first three days of the Lunar New Year and lodging will not be provided on Lunar New Year's Eve (February 4).

     But for public convenience some sports centres, turf pitches, squash courts, tennis courts, the archery range at Ngau Chi Wan Park, the indoor bowling greens at Island East Sports Centre, the Green Education and Resources Centre at Kowloon Park, the Tuen Mun Recreation and Sports Centre and the Queen Elizabeth Stadium will reopen on the third day of the Lunar New Year (February 7). To use leisure facilities available on February 7, members of the public should make advance bookings between January 29 and February 4 (before 9pm) through Leisure Link Booking System. For details of facility booking service, please visit the Leisure Link website.

     Leisure Link booking counters at venues will not operate when the venues are closed. For venues scheduled to reopen on February 7, the corresponding Leisure Link booking counters will provide enquiry service and handle bookings of the facilities at the venues concerned which are yet to be taken up on that day.  

     Details of the opening arrangements for LCSD recreation and sports venues during the Lunar New Year holidays have been posted at all venues and uploaded to the department's website.

     The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) will implement special opening hours at its performance venues and URBTIX outlets during the Lunar New Year holidays, an LCSD spokesman announced today (January 21). Details are as follows:
      
February 4 (Lunar New Year's Eve)
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February 5 (the first day of the Lunar New Year)
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February 6 (the second day of the Lunar New Year)
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February 7 (the third day of the Lunar New Year)
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February 8 (the fourth day of the Lunar New Year)
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      From February 4 to 8, the URBTIX Internet booking website (www.urbtix.hk) and the mobile ticketing app "My URBTIX" (Android and iPhone versions) will maintain normal services, and both the credit card telephone booking hotline 2111 5999 and the ticketing enquiries hotline 3761 6661 will maintain normal services from 10am to 8pm daily.

     A man who went missing in Cheung Sha Wan has been located.

     Ho Yee, aged 70, went missing after he left a hostel in Nam Cheong Street on January 18 morning. Staff of the hostel made a report to Police on the same day.

     The man was located on Tai Po Road, Cheung Sha Wan last night (January 21).

     The Labour Department (LD) announced today (January 21) that the main round registration for the Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) under the Hong Kong/United Kingdom (UK) Working Holiday Scheme will commence on February 18. Youths holding the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) passport and interested in participating in the UK's Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) may submit their registrations for the CoS to the LD from February 18 to March 1 this year (both dates inclusive), before applying for a Tier 5 (YMS) visa with the UK from April 10 to July 9 this year (both dates inclusive).

     According to the arrangement agreed between Hong Kong and the UK, youths from Hong Kong can apply for a Tier 5 (YMS) visa allowing them to stay in the UK for up to two years, during which they can engage in short-term employment to finance their stay, privately funded studies and/or voluntary work of choice. The annual quota is 1 000 for HKSAR passport holders.

     Applicants for the CoS have to meet the following eligibility criteria:

– The applicant must be a holder of a valid HKSAR passport;

– The applicant must be aged between 18 and 30 on the day the visa application is made; and

– The applicant must not have previously spent time in the UK as a "Working Holidaymaker" or a YMS temporary migrant.

     Applicants who wish to obtain a CoS can download the relevant registration form online (www.whs.gov.hk/res/pdf/UK_regform.pdf) and submit the completed registration form together with the required supporting documents to the LD during the registration period. Applications submitted outside the registration period will not be processed. In the event that there are more eligible registrants than the available quota (i.e. 1 000 for the main round registration), a computer ballot will be drawn to randomly select successful registrants.

     Holders of the British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) passport do not need to apply for the CoS and can submit their applications for the Tier 5 (YMS) visa directly to the UK Visa Application Centre in Hong Kong.

     For details on obtaining a CoS, please refer to the LD's website: www.whs.gov.hk/en/partners.php?location=UK#cos. Please also visit www.whs.gov.hk for details relating to the Working Holiday Scheme.