Walking in darkness : dynamic possibilities of night hiking route system & night public health recreation

Abstract

These years, an exercise call "Night Hiking" become popular among Hong Kong hikers, large amount of professional websites and meeting up groups appeared in the Internet. From 2000 to now, about 25 websites and 4000 meetup groups appeared, holding daily or weekly night hiking activities for Hong Kong hikers. People go to night hike for different objectives, some may simply think it's cooler and could escape from people, some treated as a personal challenge for both body and mind, and the most of them are attracted by the amazing views which they can't find in the bright day. Chasing the stars or sunrise in the top of mountain, playing with firefly, meeting multiple wild animals such as sleeping bird, owls, walking beef and other else. Each hikers may have different ambitions. Most night hiking route are in country parks, where usage rate is quite low in the night. In Hong Kong Island, there are more than 76 popular routes for hikers to pick in the day, while only 4 for the night. Some hikers complained about the less of choice, and the management of the routes are absent in the night. The night use of the hiking routes were not considered when the hiking system was designed and the improved demand for a better night hiking system is clear. To fulfill Hong Kong hiker’s demand for a better night hiking system making a research & redesign of Hong Kong's country parks night hiking routes valuable. Balance the people's flow in the night, to attract more people to use country parks in the night. Using my landscape knowledge to keep the balance between natural environment and human activities, find more opportunities of each route. Promote the activities of night hiking in suitable way is a part of Hong Kong's public health recreation construction. The Hong Kong Government’s also has policy about to promote healthy public recreation and landscape architects should be taking consideration of public health recreation. Thus the redesign and replanning of Hong Kong night hiking system could be a very valuable issue. To achieve the task, I choose Hong Kong Island as my site, go site field trips to the hiking routes in Hong Kong Island, conduct Interviews with night hikers, look for background research for the night hiking routes. Then, take reference of daytime hiking route evaluation system, to create a new suitable evaluation system for night hiking routes. After that, pick up some important routes with design potential and do detailed analysis of each routes and replan the possible new Hong Kong night hiking system. Finally, using my landscape knowledge to keep the balance between natural environment and human activities, find more opportunities of each route, provide with some development strategies.