Walking tour offers insight into life for blind people on Hong Kong's streets
Walking tour puts visually impaired - and people using blindfolds - on equal footing as they discover North Point's smells, sounds and history
It was a case of the blind leading the blindfolded on a new walking tour catering to those who can, and cannot see, which tried to bring to life the smells, sounds and history of North Point.
Co-organised by arts cooperative I'mperfect and social enterprise Walk In, the two-hour walking tour took a group of about 20 people - seven visually impaired - through North Point's busy streets, with some sections travelled wearing blindfolds.
"Blindfolded, everyone is on an equal footing - then we see if we can experience the city in a different way," said Paul Chan Chi-yuen, the tour's guide and one of the founders of Walk In.
The tour group was told about Li Ka-shing's first real estate development venture, City Garden. Participants were also led through the bustling wet market to Chun Nam Noodle Factory, where they were able to touch the different types of noodles and dumpling wraps, and visited the tram stop and the bridge where a dramatic showdown took place during the 1967 Cultural Revolution unrest, when armed forces dropped down from a helicopter to deal with rioters.
The group was also told of the waves of Indonesian-Chinese, Filipino-Chinese and Hokkien immigrants in North Point, the meanings behind street names and the area's notoriety as a communist base.
Reaching a site, everyone was told to put on blindfolds and listen to the story behind the area. Some parts of tour involved people walking while blindfolded so they could experience walking on the streets without sight.
Jean Lin, 45, said her visual impairment had kept her from travelling around easily.
