The recently released Action Plan on Weight Management by the Department of Health (DH) promotes territory‑wide weight management comprehensively. The Government hopes the public will receive comprehensive support from the system, the environment and the community, and perceive health as a practical and achievable path in daily choices, rather than a distant ideal.Walking is a simple physical activity that can be easily integrated into daily life and is beneficial for health promotion. In view of this, starting from this year, DH announced that the walking challenge will be regularised as a year-round initiative, available to the public free of charge, encouraging everyone to use 10 000 steps a day as a target to cultivate the habit of regular physical activity.To participate, you can simply download the eHealth App (see QR code), log in to the "e+Life" platform, and synchronise your moblie device's step count to the platform. You can then check your daily steps and progress at any time. The platform also features various thematic walking routes, as well as functions displaying personal records and friends' step counts, allowing the public to remind and encourage each other. This makes exercise an enjoyable activity that can be incorporated into daily life, while accumulating health coins to redeem prizes.For more information, please refer to the Walking Challenge and Weight Management websites.Let’s get ready and start our “10,000 steps a day” journey together!

The dedicated website Digital Herbarium for Chinese Medicines (DHCM) is established by the Government Chinese Medicines Testing Institute (GCMTI) of the Department of Health (DH) through digitalisation of Chinese medicines specimens into a digital collection. High-resolution pictures and related data of 220 commonly used Chinese materia medica (CMM) and their source plants are currently included at the DHCM. It is the first online herbarium of its kind that provides comprehensive information on Chinese medicines, and also the first in the world using photogrammetry to produce three dimensional (3D) images on traceable CMM specimens.Users of the DHCM may use the name of CMM or plants, their medicinal uses, collection locations, or medicinal parts as keywords to search for information of the Chinese medicines. The uses, precautions on proper use, and storage information of each CMM are provided. The scientific information such as chemical information, microscopic slides, DNA sequences and 3D images are also provided for some CMM.Furthermore, virtual reality (VR) technology is also used in the DHCM to provide a virtual tour to the Chinese Medicines Herbarium of the GCMTI for users. They will be able to view the precious CMM specimens donated by the National Medical Products Administration through the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control.Visit DH's dedicated website Digital Herbarium for Chinese Medicines to know more now!