More than 3,000 kindergarten pupils and teachers worked on a huge handprint painting together on Friday to kick off an environmental education program -- Green Kindergarten Network.

Pupils and teachers participating the program launching ceremony produced the painting on a 370 square meters canvas and they were in the hope of breaking the Guinness World Record.

The painting design was based on famous painter Vincent Van Gogh's magnificent wheat field with Mountains in the Background to highlight the theme -- We Love Nature.

Green Kindergarten Network is co-organized by Hong Kong Green Power and NWS Holdings Limited of Hong Kong with the aim to nurture environmental awareness among the young generation by providing kindergartens with free materials and training on environmental education, together with field trips for both students and teachers.

Speaking at the ceremony, Acting Deputy Director of Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department Eric Chan said that environmental education should be started at early childhood for the best results.

The notion of environmental protection was just as a seed planting in children's hearts. Cultivation given by teachers and parents during the growing process would result in fruitful outcomes.

(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2005)