Savouring the Olympic legacy: Club donates Olympic equestrian fence to Beijing Olympic Museum

23 December 2008

As part of its drive to uphold the Olympic legacy, the Club donated a Beijing 2008 Olympic equestrian fence to the Beijing Heritage Bureau today (23 December). The Olympic fence will be exhibited in the future Beijing Olympic Museum. In addition, the Club and the Bureau held high-level discussions on future co-operation between the Beijing and Hong Kong Olympic Museums.

In today's ceremony, which marked the Club's first donation of an Olympic equestrian fence, the Club presented the giant ''Dragon Boat'' jump to the Beijing Heritage Bureau. The eye-catching ''Dragon Boat'', which has a strong Chinese and Hong Kong cultural flavour, is the actual fence used in the Beijing Olympic jumping events at the Main Competition Venue at Sha Tin and is a potent reminder of the historic staging of the Olympic equestrian events in Hong Kong.

In the handover ceremony, the Club's Executive Director of Corporate Development Kim Mak emphasised, ''After the successful staging of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the Club, as the venue and facilities provider for the Olympic Equestrian Events, has continued to hold different activities to promote Olympism. The donation of this Olympic fence will further enhance the co-corporation between Hong Kong and Beijing and the two cities can work together closely to savour the legacy of the 2008 Olympics in the future.

''I think the Olympic Museums in Beijing and Hong Kong will have their own characteristics of the individual sports and cultures. The two Museums can be mutually beneficial and complementary and will, in turn, enhance the development of the museums in both cities. The co-operation between Beijing and Hong Kong also can help to record the impact of the Beijing Olympic Games on Beijing, on China and even the world for posterity.''

Ms. Feng Yun, Vice Director, Preparation Office of the Beijing Olympic Museum, Ms. Chen Zhong-ying, Vice Director of Collection Department in Capital Museum and Mr. Wang Zhi-jun from the Preparation Office of the Beijing Olympic Museum visited Penfold Park today to see the Olympic cauldron used at the equestrian events in Hong Kong, which is now on permanent display in the park. The Beijing guests also had the chance to see some of the Olympic equestrian fences, the Olympic mega-rings, and the ''Horses Across Hong Kong'' life-sized horse statues in the park.

As well as the ''Dragon Boat'' fence, the Club also presented one of the ''Horses Across Hong Kong'' statues as a permanent showpiece to the Beijing Olympic Museum. In April of this year, the Club signed a Co-operation Agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Museum, paving the way for the development of a Hong Kong Olympic Museum, The two sister Museums will work closely together to promote Olympism. In a signing ceremony held at the Beijing Hong Kong Jockey Clubhouse, a miniature horse statue was presented to the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG). The Club later presented the IOC Museum with a life-sized version of the same statue, which was put on display in the Olympic Museum just before the start of the Beijing Games.

The horse statue presented to the Beijing Olympic Museum demonstrates the close co-operation between the IOC, BOCOG and the Club, and also commemorates the success of the Beijing Olympic equestrian events.

As part of the ''Horses Across Hong Kong'' promotion, a series of life-sized horse statues were displayed in different communities in Hong Kong to promote Olympism during the Olympic year.

The ''Dragon Boat'' fence and horse statue will be on display in the Beijing Museum, meaning that the people of the Mainland and tourists from overseas can experience the atmosphere of Hong Kong's co-hosting of the Beijing Olympic equestrian events.