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The HKSAR Government will file an application with the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) in the next couple of months for eight rocky landforms in the northeast of Hong Kong to be officially named as national geoparks. To this end, a geopark tourist centre, where more than a hundred pieces of rock specimens will be put on display, is going to be opened in Sai Kung by the end of this year, and a geological trail will also be constructed at the High Island Reservoir. Also under government planning, applications from primary and secondary schools for conducting related courses will be invited starting from next month. These "software" and "hardware" initiatives all aim at facilitating the application for national geopark status.
In recent months, staff members of the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) had made overseas trips and attended meetings on the mainland for preparing national geopark application documents, which will be submitted to MLR in the coming one or two months. According to Ho Ching Yee, geopark officer of AFCD, the preparation work is close to completion and the department is currently putting together additional hardware and software facilities in order to get a higher rating.
In terms of hardware facilities, AFCD is turning the Country Park Exhibition Hall of the Lions Nature Education Centre in Sai Kung into a geopark tourist centre to house more than a hundred exhibits of different rock types and a small quantity of fossil specimens. Renovation work will finish by the end of the year. At about the same time, at the High Island Reservoir, a geological trail will also be in place with the monument on the East Dam as its starting point. Visitors will be able to enjoy views of gigantic hexagonal columns along the trail as well as to understand more about rock formation from the explanations given on the information plates.
In view of the relatively inadequate education on rocky landforms in Hong Kong, AFCD will organize rock classes at the Lions Nature Education Centre in September to teach primary and secondary students knowledge and characteristics of rocks. Hui Kit Yee, geopark inspector of AFCD, said that there will be in the classes hands-on production of artificial fossils with gypsum powder and leaves for students to learn how organic matters could become fossils after being covered by sediments for hundreds of years. There will also be on-site experiments in which crystals are made from hot saline water to help explain to students how rock crystals were formed when the lava gradually cooled down. As Hui indicated, enrollment of each rock class will be limited to thirty students and each class takes about two hours. AFCD has already sent letters to schools through the Education Bureau to invite participation from teachers and students. translated by開明
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