Singaporean tour guide wants visitors to ‘travel like a local’ in Hong Kong by walking everywhere
- Ski Yeo Poh Lian visited city as a child, and 23 years later, returned to start her own tourism agency focused on showing people how locals get around
When Singaporean Ski Yeo Poh Lian visited Hong Kong for the first time in 1996, the 12-year-old was dazzled by a simple but typical street scene: people walking everywhere, all the time.
Two decades later, Yeo can barely recall her first memories of Ocean Park or Victoria Harbour. But this first impression, taken from looking out a bus window, has stayed vivid.
“Look how fast locals walk, even the elderly. It shows the speed of this city, full of energy,” Yeo, now 35, said. “Hong Kong is not just about the big brands tourists see on the main roads.”
With a mostly Western clientele, Big Foot Tour designs walking routes that help visitors discover hidden stalls or eateries and avoid the hustle and bustle of shopping malls or popular attractions.
Customers are also taught a few Cantonese phrases and Chinese characters along the way, and encouraged to interact with locals on their own.
