Pause and wonder…

It’s been 4 months since secrettourhk became our full-time career. We are giving a pause and feeling deeper what has happened and what we hoped it will happen next.

 

It was a grateful experience since we started everything from zero. Tourism has been a big thing in Hong Kong for a long time. Yet, we are not exactly doing ‘tourism’, but a new breed of industry that lies between tourism, culture, education, entertainment, idea exchange, media… sometimes we are confused. However, we are clear that it is something unprecedented and experimental. And it is secrettourhk. It happened without any guidelines and rules… Sometimes it does make us feel difficult: Without any examples for us to follow, without previous experience shared, without any case reference, we are lost at times and feeling uncertain if things will work well. Sometimes it does feel easy, cuz we are the boss and we have the say without the need to follow any orders or conventional opinions. 

 

Courageous is the most used words when people are trying to describe us for the past months. Yes, I was courageous when I handed my resignation letter. But when I have really quitted and left my old job, it is pretty natural. Sometimes I think that all human should live like this: simply focus on things that they believe, excel in it. Let yourself work without counting how much we should be paid for having this piece of work done, but cherishing the process when we are working on it. And having the vision/faith that finishing this piece of work is on step further to the bigger dream in our mind. This is amazing and I am glad that i made the decision to have less salary, less shopping, less fancy food, but a much happier life.

 

As long as we still believe, we got the energy to carry on. 

 

Very soon, we will put up some brand new tours for you guys to enjoy and experience the less-visible side of Hong Kong. I still believe these are the things that people should treasure. Though, majority of people in the city care less and thus they are disappearing one by one… 

 

I do hope we can make some changes

Nothing compares to all the happy faces in our tours! (photowalk on Feb11, 2012)

Love,

Josie 
 

 

 

 

Everyday is a new adventure

So we have moved in the new office for one week already.

 

Everyday is adventurous to us. There is no guidelines, no boundaries of what you should/should not do. I don’t even know if there are companies providing similar services in  Hong Kong or not. Good thing is, whatever we do is pioneering; bad thing is, we may need to do a lot of trial by error.

 

Our first ever tour – Photo-walk is fully-booked within 20 hours since announcement;

our eco-office is 80% done with many generous donations – including 2 designer chairs;

we got several business tours undergoing in late FEB / early MARCH;

we got five applications of intenship in the first day of recruitment;

we are blessed, we are loved by Hong Kong people

 

We will try our best to show travelers/locals the hidden side of Hong Kong,

We will try our best to tell people HK is more than a commercial city;

We will try our best to promote Hong Kong tourism!

 

Looking forward, we will try to start our first Mandarin tour and also Japanese tour before May. We will start up a (secret) online platform before summer comes…

 

Thanks for following us and stay tuned!

 

Stephen

co-founder, secrettourhk

 

Sharing of secret tour hong kong to fellow college students

 

We are coming back with a new tour

Kung Hei Fat Choi! In this year of Dragon, secrettourhk is taking a big leap forward. Hopefully will bring in more tours for all of you guys. 

We have been away for awhile… But, we are now back with an awesome photowalk tour for our fellow friends!

Do you travel with a camera? I guess almost everyone does! However, are you tired of taking pictures in front of standardized tourist spots like the Big Budda, the Victoria Harbour, and the Peak? Photowalk is for you to explore more new angles!

In this Photowalk Tour, the path mainly covers Eastern Kowloon around To Kwa Wan, Kowloon City, and San Po Kong. We have invited Nick Poon (www.flickr.com/liver1223) , a renowned photographer on Flickr, to share his works and tips about shooting documentary type of street photos along the tour. At the end of the trip, we will share the best shots of everyone and you can print it as postcard and send back to your home!

Tour Details:

Date: 11 Feb 2012 (SAT)
Time: 11am – 4pm

Photographer: Nick Poon
Meet-up point: Exit D, Mong Kong MTR Station (inside station, next to hangseng bank) 

Price: $700 per person (including one meal)
Early-bird Price at $600 for those who enrol on/before 5FEB2012(Sun)

Please enrol by e-mailing your name, contact no., and nationality to josie@secrettourhk.com

Other new tours are in progress… Stay tuned!

A new chapter of secret tour hong kong

 

Dear travelers,

 

One year ago, we started secret tour hong kong.

because we love traveling;

because we believe Hong Kong has so much more than a modern city;

because we want to provide an alternative traveling experience to our beloved travelers.

 

We organized 10 full-house tours around Hong Kong.

We received +100 applications for every single tour we organized.

We organized secret dinner with cuisines from 15 countries.

We received great love from 4,500 friends on facebook;

We share secrets of Hong Kong with over 800 frequent travelers on our mailing list.

We spread our joy through over 30 media at HK and oversea.

 

We are happy that,

we found more and more travelers that share the same mindset as us - 

traveling is about embracing a new culture by meeting local people.

 

Now, it’s time to move on.

I am pleased to tell you that we both will devote our full time working on this project.

Starting from FEB, we will be a registered company at Hong Kong. 

We will create three new tours which are never-seen-before at Hong Kong – photo-walk, local art tour, cultural tour.

In order to provide travelers the best alternative experience, we unavoidably need to be financial sustainable,

therefore, we will start to charge for all tours starting from FEB 2012. 

 

We welcome ideas from you,

we welcome advices from you,

we welcome criticisms from you,

because we know that,

together we can make a better Hong Kong - 

it’s not a money-city anymore;

it’s not an ice-box anymore;

it’s a big city, full of interesting stories from people, full of love and joy from the community.

And let Secret Tour Hong Kong be the place where travelers meet the real locals.

 

Cheers,

Josie and Stephen

Founders and co-CEOs

Secret Tour Hong Kong

www.secrettourhk.com

The concept of “secrettourhk”

secrettourhk is a newly-born creative project. We offer backpackers FREE and UNCOMMON city tour at HK, but you gotta share with us a secret at the end of journey. We are going to publish the secrets in creative forms anonymously!

 

 

The Very First Night

This is how the thought begins…

We were drinking white wine, talking about how GREAT it was when we were doing exchange in Europe. After sharing some of our stories, we realized what we impressed most in a trip are not the churches, the museums, or whatever sculptures. The most impressive thing of a trip is the PEOPLE! Human interactions are memorable, spiritual, and inspirational. Some expressions, some phrases, some laughter, some confessions could just make up the best travel journal of your own. We have had a great travel journal in Europe, and we do hope that you can have yours in Hong Kong! Therefore, we came up with the idea of being a ……….

tour guide.

(to be continued,,, )

Coming soon

A creative project by Hong Kong backpackers is coming soon