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David Watkins

'SENSE IT, SEE IT, get it, taste it, hear it, live it, love it,' is how Hong Kong sells itself to the rest of the world.

But what is 'it'?

First-time arrivals find themselves bombarded with messages telling them that life in this city revolves around eating, shopping and Jackie Chan - and if they took the Hong Kong Tourism Board's word for it, they'd be forgiven for thinking that was all. 

Cast your mind back to the brouhaha last summer when the decision was made to drape a giant shopping bag around the clock tower on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront. A marketing gimmick that was, according to  board spokeswoman Bonnie Ngan Suet-fong, aimed at 'promoting our city's unique culture to shoppers through a 'shopping-bag' design and attracting them to participate in the city's cultural and heritage activities, thus extending their experience beyond shopping.'

Still awake? In reality, few who saw it probably thought long enough to realise the profundity of it all - before trudging off for a spot of shopping and eating,  or maybe going to see the latest Jackie  Chan flick.

What the stunt did achieve, however, was to highlight how difficult it is for many tourists to connect with Hong Kong through its history - because it isn't clear whose history and heritage it really is.

'There are people who are looking for more than just Teddy Bear Kingdom,' says Stefan White, director of  Mobile Adventures. 'There's a real, strong desire from visitors to get a more cultural feel to the place. They already know about Hong Kong being good for shopping and eating. Some of them are leaving a little  disappointed because they're not given a chance to make a connection.' So White, 32, and fellow company director David Wong Yau-vee, 31, have come up with  a solution. 

Walk the Talk represents a first for Hong Kong, in that it's an audio-guided walk that you listen to via your mobile phone. The audio tour, traditionally the bane of art snobs the world over, has been taken out of the museums and onto the streets.

'Hong Kong's problem is that everyone has their own version of its history,' says Wong, who grew up in Hong Kong after his Shanghainese father and German mother moved from Chicago when he was six weeks old. 'If you read the Chinese narratives on Hong Kong history, they're naturally very different from the British colonial records. There's been an attempt to bridge the gap in the last couple of decades, but it's still in its infancy. It's also taking place in an ivory tower, and therefore not happening with people on the street - and that's part of the reason why there isn't enough of a feeling of common identity and ownership.'

The pair have written and voiced two-hour audio tours through Central and Tsim Sha Tsui that aim to go deeper than merely shopping and eating. They  went on sale in local bookstores and leading hotels in December. 

Two packages - one with a SIM card and one without (aimed at locals and those whose cards  will work in Hong Kong) are available. Listeners simply dial up and enter a pass code that enables them to listen to the tour, which is divided  into chapters that can be accessed by typing in the relevant number. The SIM also gives the listener airtime to make local calls on the CSL network. Wong and White came up with the idea after meeting  in Britain  on a business trip in 2000, during which they took an audio tour around Edinburgh Castle. 

'We took the tour and it had an audio guide,' says White. 'But during the tour we kept getting calls on our mobile phones. We were walking around holding things up to both ears.'

 So, the idea to combine the two became something of a necessity. 'Naturally, the device of the future is the mobile phone,' says White. 'People listen to music on it, take pictures - why not tour around the city with it?  You've already got the device, meaning that you can start the tour whenever you like, and you don't have to give back a piece of hardware at the end.' 


The idea of using technology to bring history to life is  aesthetically appealing,  while the tour  capitalises on growing trends in independent travel and the desire to get away from the staged tourism of  junks and the Jumbo restaurant. 

 It also flies in the face of German philosopher Martin Heidegger's idea that technology is simply a way of rearranging the world so that you don't have to experience it. 

'We'd like to start a debate, stimulate some discussion about what Hong Kong's history really means to people,' says Wong. 'It's  been said that  Hongkongers have always been pragmatic, that putting food on the table takes precedence over history and heritage concerns. But when you look at a city's past, that's what really tells you about the place. 

'Is it a history we can be completely proud of? How do we want to remember that history? These questions remain unanswered. This is a city full of immigrants, and a lot of its history can really be summed up in the last 150 years.'

 Walk the Talk combines some of the more standard preoccupations of tourism with a clever, densely layered cultural tour embracing architecture, history and storytelling, based on both colonial and Chinese historical accounts. Added to this is contemporary information about local celebrities, triads, prominent entrepreneurs and the stories behind the names on street signs. 

 'We weren't sure how we could make money with this idea,' says Wong. 'Two years ago, we both found ourselves back in Hong Kong, and found that there was very little in terms of walking tours. When visitors come to Hong Kong, they see this incredible skyline, they think the place has a history of maybe 150 years and was founded by some drug dealers, handed  between Britain and China. But nobody is actually telling them these stories.'

The tour  isn't shy of wandering into some of the city's seamier places, with listeners sent along bustling back alleys in Tsim Sha Tsui and into the chaos of Chungking Mansions - complete with recommendations for  its best curries.  'It's not the postcard image, but one that we wanted to capture, anyway,' says Wong.

'This is a city without heroes - there are hardly any sculptures or statues.  It's a phenomenon - and yet we have the clock tower. Does it really mean anything to the people of Hong Kong? Or has it just been kept for a small group of people - mainly Europeans - who wanted to preserve old monuments. The Tourism Board has difficulty in knowing how to get visitors to consume the tower - which is why they dressed it up in a  shopping bag.'

It's an issue that the Tsim Sha Tsui tour, in particular, attempts to address. 

'Why do Europeans choose to preserve Roman ruins?' says Wong in one segment. 'It's about providing affirmation that they're descendants of a great civilisation. Why would Hong Kong Chinese want to remember their former British colonial masters? The British knew that statues of themselves would never vest them with greater authority in the eyes of the Chinese population. By the same token, they were reluctant to allow statues of Chinese heroes that could pose a threat to their power.'

The SIM card-based tour, available in  English and  Putonghua, is useable over a three-day period. Anyone from jet-lagged tourists to inquisitive residents can use it any time of the day, without the ritual humiliation of following a flag-waving tour guide around town. 

And yet for those concerned about possible health issues  of such prolonged usage of their mobile phone, will the concept be a turn-off?

'A lot of people have headphones, and that's a very easy way to get around it,' says Wong. 'I don't think it's  onerous. You can take breaks while taking our walk. There are many places where we tell you to just stop. You could be at the Bank of China Building and we'll say, 'Stop, hang out for a while, take the elevator ride up to the 48th floor and go and have a look at the fantastic view.' Or we'll tell them about the fung shui aspects of HSBC's diagonal escalators.  That's the beauty of a mobile guide - you can turn us off.'

Walk the Talk, $150 (with SIM card), $88 (without),  from Bookazine, Dymocks, Hong Kong Book Centre, Kelly & Walsh, Swindon's and the XTC on Ice outlets at Star Ferry and in Lan Kwai Fong. Inquiries: walk@mobileadventures.com



Listen while you walk