Still some 2,800 Hong Kong residents aged from 5 to 70 have decided to choose their own way of welcoming 2003 -- 12-hour long-distance running for the good of their health as well as the welfare of many others.

Students, company employees, sportsmen, and public servants will join in the running at the Hong Kong Sports Institute in Sha Tin on Dec. 31. The money raised during this activity will be directed to charity purposes.

This is the end of numerous welfare activities happening in this city in 2002 and the herald of more in the new year.

According to figures from the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department, some 3,700 charity organizations in Hong Kong have applied to the department for the tax-exemption preferential treatment. The actual number of the charity organizations, the department estimate, may be even larger.

From charity sales which are staged at both shopping malls and street stalls, to charity concerts which garner revenues,

The Hong Kong Jockey Club turns out to be the city's premier charity support organization, which even losers in horse-racing bet can condole themselves with the fact that at least they have made some contributions for the betterment of the Hong Kong society. In the club's Chief Executive Lawrence T Wong's words, "Racing for charity is the club's historic commitment to Hong Kong and the cornerstone of our unique business model."

The club donated 1.065 billion HK dollars (128 million US dollars) to fund 147 charities and community projects during the last horse race season from Sept. 2001 to June 2002, a season-to-season rise of one million HK dollars (128,000 US dollars), despite the fact that the corresponding total betting dollars declined from 81.5 billion HK dollars (10.4 billion US dollars) to78.2 billion HK dollars (10 billion US dollars).

Altogether, the club has generated a total of 11 billion HK dollars (1.4 billion US dollars) to fund charity services during the past ten years, making it one of the largest charity support organizations in the world.

Besides donating money, 350,000 Hong Kong people out of a population of 6.7 million have registered as volunteers by the endof November 2002, with Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa's wife Betty Tung acting as their leader as well as the president ofthe Hong Kong Red Cross.

A recent seminar hosted by the Hong Kong Agency for Volunteer Service disclosed that during 2002, those volunteers on average provide 35-hour voluntary service organized by certain groups or organizations. Their service is valued at 3.1 billion HK dollars (397 million US dollars), as Hong Kong wages are currently priced at 50 HK dollars per hour. To put it more concretely, the sum of money is enough to build half of the 2.2 kilometer-long Tsing Ma Bridge in Hong Kong, the world's longest suspension bridge carrying road and rail traffic.

Hong Kong residents are beneficent towards friends and neighbors akin to themselves, as well as Chinese inlanders and people living in other parts of the world.

The Hong Kong-based Sowers Action is dedicated to helping children of the poor and remote areas in Chinese mainland back to school, assisting in the rebuilding and repairing of school premises and improving the quality of the teaching staff. Since its founding in 1992 to the end of 2002, the program has financed the repair of more than 400 primary and secondary schools in the mainland, and the tuition of 140,000 students and the training of 1,000 principals and teachers, with a total donated fund of 90 million yuan (10.9 million US dollars).

According to Sowers Action's Executive Officer Eva Chan, education is the only means to turn the burden of the huge population in Chinese mainland into "source of intelligence."

Not only people, but also animals, are beneficiaries of Hong Kong people's kindness and generosity. Even renowned world-class violinist Takako Nishizaki was motivated to hold a charity concertat the Hong Kong Cultural Center this year, to help fund the Hong Kong-based Society for Abandoned Animals (SAA) Foundation.

Takako Nishizaki has taken part in numerous charity concerts inHong Kong, where she has settled since 1974.

According to founding member of SAA Violet Chow, SAA has found new homes for over 1,310 animals and placed them in over 1,270 families, societies and schools since its inception in 1997.

A middle-aged woman volunteer who declined to give her name is at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung to visit and comfort the patients there. She noted that "even though Hong Kong is currently experiencing economic slowdown, but if everyone extends helping hands to those in need, we would surely make Hong Kong a better place to live."

(Xinhua News Agency December 28, 2002)