Mobile Adventures founders Stefan White (left) and David Wong have more stories in store for Hong Kong's culture-hungry tourists

When it happened to US-born Hong Kong residents David Wong and Stefan White, they turned it into a business idea. Inspired by fantastic tales of Hong Kong's colourful past, and realising the potential of the ubiquitous mobile phone, the two former classmates began formulating their self-guided tourism venture, Mobile Adventures.

Hong Kong was the ideal place to launch their Walk the Talk walks, which are rather like museum audio guides, allowing the user to listen to various stories on a route, in any order, tune in to specialised content, and rewind, fast forward or pause - all via a mobile phone.

"Hong Kong made excellent sense as a destination," Mr Wong said.  "We both love and admire Hong Kong as an amazing city with fascinating stories to tell.  Hong Kong is one of the world's great destinations, attracting 21 million visitors in 2004 alone.  The lack of heritage walking tours in a world city like this seemed an interesting opportunity, and the fact that mobile calls here are among the cheapest in the world (one-sixth the cost of their equivalents in London or New York) added fuel to the fire."

Right time, right place

By 2003, a number of trends made the time seem right to launch the idea. Most visitors to Hong Kong now brought their phones with them. The huge investment in 3G and data by mobile operators worldwide had made consumers aware that their phones can do a lot more than make a phone call. Line quality had improved dramatically, and call costs were in continuous decline. Tour participants, who are also given a 3D map to help them explore, could now easily connect with the city's past, simply by making a phone call.

The stories they hear are as important as they are colourful - such as how Hong Kong was transformed from a 'barren rock' based on the dubious opium trade, to the successful city it is today, in just two human lifetimes. The Central walk Barren Rock to World City is about the confluence of money, power and architecture in a few city blocks, and how visionaries, opium merchants, leaders and gamblers created the modern Hong Kong.  The Tsim Sha Tsui walk Buccaneers' Den to Neon Mecca explores its transformation from pirate haven to pulsating district, while the Macau walk The Heart of Old Macau explores the fascinating 450-year history of a city that was never quite a colony, yet never quite part of China. 

"The benefit of a mobile guide, unlike a live one, is that you can hang up and re-connect any time you like - even the next day," Mr Wong said. "We people three full days to listen to our walk from the first time they've dialed in the secret passcode, giving them much more flexibility (not to mention a cheaper price) than organised bus tours. While we are primarily a heritage and architectural guide, we do provide a variety of optional audio segments with our best ideas for eating, shopping or bathroom stops."

Expansion on the agenda

Two further walks will be introduced later this year, taking in Soho (tentatively called Sex, Drugs and Pirate Gold in Early Hong Kong), and an eerie exploration of the Western district (Plague, Death and the Ghosts of Taipingshan) which is best done at night. Another walk is being planned in Macau. Increasingly, the walks are becoming multilingual.

The partners are consolidating their product in Hong Kong and Macau this year, but are already in discussions about creating new walks in Singapore and in Sydney.  "The Chinese mainland is a very important market so it is also a vital next step," Mr Wong said. "We see great potential for our walks in the Bund and on Nanjing Road in Shanghai, on Sha Mian Island in Guangzhou, and in several parts of Beijing.  But the most important thing is that our walks are done well - we believe the most important aspects of our product are the quality and entertainment value of our storytelling."

Related link
Walk the Talk walks