Hong Kong – LCSD public service arrangements during Lunar New Year holidays

     The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) announced today (January 19) the department’s public service arrangements during the Lunar New Year holidays. Parks, playgrounds, and facilities at Queen Elizabeth Stadium under the LCSD will remain open during the Lunar New Year holidays. The SmartPLAY Internet booking service will also operate as usual throughout the holidays.

     After the closure during the first two days of the Lunar New Year, some recreation and sports facilities will reopen and operate as usual (please refer to Annex 1 for details) on the third day of the Lunar New Year (February 12), including sports centres, squash courts, tennis courts, turf pitches, bowling greens, Tuen Mun Recreation and Sports Centre and the archery range at Ngau Chi Wan Park. 

     Apart from the above facilities, some 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 10 to 12). 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 9).
      
     SmartPLAY service counters at venues will not operate when the venues are closed. For venues scheduled to reopen on February 12, their SmartPLAY service counters will also resume operation on the same 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 (www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/index.html).

     Regarding cultural venues, the opening hours of performance venues and URBTIX outlets during the Lunar New Year holidays are listed in Annex 2. From February 9 to 13 (Lunar New Year’s Eve to the fourth day of the Lunar New Year), the URBTIX Internet booking (www.urbtix.hk) and the mobile ticketing app URBTIX will maintain normal services, and both the telephone booking hotline 3166 1288 and the ticketing enquiries and customer service hotline 3166 1100 will provide normal services from 10am to 8pm daily.

     The opening hours of the 15 museums and two visual art centres (see Annex 3) under the LCSD during the Lunar New Year holidays are as follow:

• Lunar New Year’s Eve (February 9): All venues will be closed at 5pm.
• The first two days of the Lunar New Year (February 10 and 11): All closed.
• The third day of the Lunar New Year (February 12): Except for the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre, all venues will open as usual.
• The fourth day of the Lunar New Year (February 13): All venues will resume normal opening hours.

     All Hong Kong public libraries, mobile libraries and students’ study rooms will be closed from 5pm on Lunar New Year’s Eve (February 9) to the third day of the Lunar New Year (February 12). The opening hours of all public libraries on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year (February 13) will be the same as those for public holidays.
            
     Moreover, system maintenance work of public libraries will be carried out from 5.30pm on February 9 to 8am on February 13, during which the following services will be suspended:

• library mobile app services and Internet and telephone renewal services;
• other online library services, including the library catalogue, borrowers’ record enquiries, reservation of library materials and Internet and Digital Service Workstations and electronic resources (e-books and e-databases); and
• self-service library stations (readers may still return books to the stations before the due date, and the loan record will be updated within two working days).