Trek into Oasis

“Hong Kong is such a beautiful place with hundreds of hiking routes, from easy walks and difficult climbs, all give you pleasure when you wander in this concrete city.” Master of Science in Environmental Management alumnus Teddy Law, founder of the hiking website Oasistrek 綠洲 and writer of the publication《咫尺山林：香港郊野的思緒漫遊》said Hong Kong is not as “concrete” as we think, and it is no less beautiful than other travel regions and countries popular among Hong Kong people.

Teddy established the website Oasistrek in 2004 with the aim of creating the best hiking website in Hong Kong. However, after witnessing how people interact with nature, such as leaving rubbish strewn about the countryside, picking flowers and plants, and even catching butterflies, Teddy now wants the website to be a platform for environmental protection.

“I want the website to serve as a starting point for visitors to rethink the relationship between individuals and nature, as well as that between urban development and environmental conservation.” Apart from offering detailed information of hiking routes and special botanical features, the Oasistrek website offers articles of Teddy’s personal thoughts, some of which towards misbehaviours of people who go on hiking, which hope to provoke readers’ thinking on the attitude towards our nature. In a recent article, Teddy expressed his frustration with the graffiti on the rocks and mountains along hiking routes.

The environment is really where Teddy’s interests lie. In 2006, he enrolled in the Master of Science programme in Environmental Management at HKU, which broadened his views on issues relating the natural environments of Hong Kong. “It enabled me to understand the difficulties in balancing city development and nature conservation in such a small and fast-growing city with scarce land resources.”

The programme also gave Teddy the opportunity to conduct a research study on the impact of different hiking trail surfaces, with particular focus on natural trails covered with concrete. “This was in fact one of the reasons I first established Oasistrek. The experiences I had conducting the project and the guidance from my then supervisors laid the foundation for me to further protect the natural trails in future.”

Having accumulated over three million pageviews on the Oasistrek website, Teddy took the next step to deepen his involvement in environment protection. He quit his full-time government job and published a book on his hiking journey, along with his thoughts and advice, hoping to inspire more people to fall in love with hiking and nature, and become involved in environmental protection.