Autumn has arrived, which is the best season for Hong Kong-ers to wander at the countryside to escape from their work. Yet, the rising frequency of mountain rescuing missions has revealed that people often under-equipped and go beyond their limits. According to SCMP in 2017, the mountain rescues have doubled from 138 in 2005 to 357 in 2016.
“For beginners, they tend to be underprepared and they may not know what to do when they are ran out of water, injured, sun burnt and lost.” Shum Si-ki, the founder of Hong Kong Hiking Meetup Group, said.
Hikers may forgot to notify their family and warm up before they go hiking, accidents may happened easily due to under preparation.
To reduce the number of mountain rescuing missions, the government has provided different type of services and facilities to track hikers if they called for help and to ensure them to hike safely. For instance, the 50222 SMS, mountain landmarks and the difficulties of the hiking trails, which is for the hikers as a reference when they plan to hike.
“Government has done more than enough for hiking community: transport, map, signs are getting better every year that make Hong Kong becoming a great outdoor city. Doing more by government might deprive people from learning themselves if they are truly enjoying hiking.” Shum mentioned.
However, some of them doesn’t even know these services exists.
“I have never heard of the 50222 SMS.” Fung Kit-Yee, a local hiker said. Fung hike 3 times twice a week but still have no idea what is the purpose of this SMS. The SMS was created by the Hong Kong Hiking Meetup 6 years ago but it was not popular used among hikers.
Apart from this service, Fung thinks that government’s facilities can have a better instruction on the mountain landmark.
Fung mentioned that “It is great to have code for us to locate where are we but the location isn’t clear, some said we will find the next code one hour later but the actual time needed is one and a half hour.”
The government can not only do better on the promotions of their services but also strengthen their network coverage.
“I can’t receive my company messages sometimes while I am hiking.” Pun-C said, who work in a local company and treat hiking as his interest. Although the mobile network coverage is far better than before, some distant areas in Hong Kong are not well-covered such as Wu Kau Teng, Lai Chi Wo in Plover Cove Country Park, Sai Kung.
“Even though we can send SOS messages for help, there is no services in some of the areas in Hong Kong.” Fung explained. Government can consider to strengthen the border areas Hong Kong so as to have a better mobile network coverage to receive hikers’ notifications.
After all, the government should educate citizens more on the hiking preparation and the use of their facilities. Promotions are very crucial to the citizens that they can enjoy what the government is advocating. Technology is getting advanced, government can pay more afford on strengthen the mobile network coverage, especially in the border areas.
#hiking#accident
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