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The Hong Kong Youth Hostels Association (HKYHA) celebrated 30 years
of service to the community in 2003, having been established in September
1973.
At the time, the majority of the population lived
in crowded public housing estates or squatter areas. The association's
founders thus envisaged the establishment of a number of basic hostels
in rural areas as a means whereby young people might escape temporarily
from the restricting surroundings in which they lived.
The association is non-profit-making organisation
that is entirely dependent upon the support of members and well-wishers
to meet its day-to-day operating costs. The practice of tight financial
control and careful husbandry has enabled it to maintain a sound financial
position over the intervening years. The capital costs of developing the
current hostel network together with the expenditure incurred in undertaking
major upgrading and renovation works have been met through the receipt
of generous financial contributions from a small number of benefactors.
The HKYHA is affiliated to the International Youth
Hostels Federation and is governed by an Executive Committee whose members
work on a voluntary, personal basis and are drawn from the private sector
and the Government. The association has its principal office in Shek Kip
Mei from where operational, administrative and marketing activities are
carried out. Individual hostels are run by resident hostel managers who
are given considerable latitude to stamp each with their own personality.
Membership of the association in Hong Kong additionally entitles those
joining to avail themselves of the facilities in over 4 200 hostels located
in about 60 countries.
The aim of all the association's hostels is to provide
a warm, welcoming and informal venue at which members from diverse backgrounds
and differing countries can meet in comfort and fellowship. It is the
association's policy to keep membership and overnight charges at the minimum
level possible consistent with prudent financial management. This is intended
to ensure that the hostels are accessible to all within the community
so as to encourage succeeding generations to become better acquainted
with the natural world that exists beyond the urban areas and to experience
for themselves the beauty of the mountains and the coastal scenery that
is so readily accessible within the HKSAR.
Each of the seven hostels is appealing in its own
way as a base for hiking, mountaineering, swimming, diving, kayaking,
camping, barbecuing and the many other pastimes both active and passive
that appeal to members. During the year, a new indoor activities hall
was completed at the Sze Lok Yuen hostel on the slopes of Tai Mo Shan
and fire-safety upgrading works were undertaken in the Mount Davis hostel
on Hong Kong Island and the Mong Tung Wan hostel on Lantau Island. Other
hostels are located at Pak Sha O and Chek Keng in Sai Kung, Ngong Ping
on Lantau and Tai Mei Tuk in Tai Po. The HKYHA has an active volunteer
services group drawn from within its membership and during the year this
group organised a number of special events based on one or other of the
association's hostels in addition to its work within the community at
large. |
