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Growing up in Hong Kong, Joyce Fong and Celina Qiu, UVA landscape architecture graduate students and 2023 Howland Travel Fellows, witnessed a perceptual shift in people's attitudes towards (rain)water that contributed to changes in the city's public policies and the engineered landscape. From severe droughts and water rationing in the 1960s, to the construction of a massive water infrastructure network in the 1970s, present-day Hong Kong residents live without a concern of water scarcity and increasingly face the dangers of flooding and torrential rains.
For their project, A Dialogue with (Rain) Water: Hong Kong 一 場與（雨）水的對話：香港篇, Fong and Qiu document and reimagine moments of interaction between people, water infrastructures and (rain)water along the MacLehose Trail, a 100 km hike that stretches across Hong Kong’s varied regional terrain. Initially serving as water catchment grounds with infrastructure to control water, the astonishing topography is now a popular recreational hiking trail passing through multiple country parks and campsites. Showcasing fieldwork and research, this project hopes to provide a different lens for encountering and engaging with (rain)water.