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HK's First Coastal Defense Museum to Open
The Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defense, the first of its kind in Hong Kong, is close to completion and scheduled to open to the public on July 25, Director of Leisure and Cultural Services Paul Leung Sai-wah said Thursday.
The museum, located on the headland to the south of the Lei Yue Mun Pass in Shau Kei Wan, is developed on the former Lei Yue Mun Fort, occupying an area of 34,200 square meters.
The theme of the Permanent exhibition at the museum is "Six Hundred Years of Coastal Defense in Hong Kong." In the 11 casemate galleries, different periods of development in the coastal defense of Hong Kong and its neighboring area are illustrated.
From the museum's exhibition galleries, visitors could trace the history of Hong Kong's coastal defense over the past six hundred years covering the periods from the Ming and Qing dynasties to the British ruling as well as Hong Kong's reunification with the motherland.
The Lei Yue Mun Fort was built in 1887 by the British to defend the eastern approach to the Victoria Harbor. Fierce fighting took place in the Fort during the Japanese War and it continued to serve as a training camp for the British Army until 1987.
Construction work of the museum commenced in October 1997 and was completed in 1999, with a budget of around 300 million HK dollars (38.46 million U.S. dollars). The museum was then handed over to the Museum management for exhibition fabrication.
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