TrailWatch turns five this year! To celebrate the anniversary of TrailWatch, an exhibition on the theme of Hike & Seek was launched to showcase the amazing scenery of Hong Kong. During the exhibition period, we invited experts from the hiking and ecology community to host talks and outdoor activities with our users. Let’s review this special event together.
At the opening reception, many guests from the hiking community and ecology section attended.
Hike & Seek: TrailWatch 5th Anniversary exhibition brought the images and sounds of nature into the city.
The photos at the exhibition were selected from the images uploaded by our users through the app. As of to date, we have over 100,000 TrailWatch users. Visitors to the exhibition could find out the details of the photos and the routes by scanning the QR code.
Apart from designing and setting up the ambient sound for the exhibition, AK Kan, nature sound recordist, also organised a workshop to Tai Tam Country Park to introduce nature sound recording to TrailWatch users. The workshop challenged the participants to discover and experience nature through a different sense.
Matthew Kwan, the curator of the exhibition is also a seasoned birdwatcher. Matthew led a birdwatching tour on 24th November to Mount Davis. During the tour, Matthew shared with participants the characteristics of city birds and how to identify the birds by their songs.
We also invited fern expert Smith Wong to lead an outing to Victoria Peak to learn about the many different types of ferns that we can find in Hong Kong. A total of 45 different ferns were spotted on the day. Participants of the event were given 3-in-1 mobile phone camera as a souvenir which include a macro lens, a perfect tool to record plants and insects with a mobile phone in the nature.
A few talks were organised during the exhibition to provide a forum for discussion about issues about country sides of Hong Kong. The first talk was hosted by Dr Wong fook-yee, former Assistant Director of AFCD, who shared the little known stories about unsung heroes that help established the country parks in Hong Kong.
Dickson Wong, a spider expert, shared with the audience the characteristics of the various spiders found in Hong Kong and debunking the myths we have around spiders.
Teddy Law, the founder of Oasistrek, shared with us how the way hikers research and plan for trekkings has changed in the age of digitization. He also shared his experience of trekking overseas over the past decades and personal reflections from years of hiking.
We thank you all for visiting us at the exhibition and joining us for the 5th anniversary activities. We look forward to seeing you in the mountains again soon!