The Walking Campaign and Car-free Day 2012 will be held on 2 March (Friday). This year, the route begins at the University MTR Station and ends at S.H. Ho College, taking participants via Lake Ad Excellentiam, and finishes in about 20 minutes. Prof. Chu Lee-man, chairman of the Committee on Campus Environment, said the event aims at promoting the health benefits of walking. ‘Since 2007, the University’s Committee of Health Promotion and Protection has been organizing campaigns to promote the culture of getting around the campus on foot. We then organized a “CUHK Car-free Day” in September 2010 to support World Car-free Day. Last year, we combined the two activities, and it was well received as reflected by the number of participants. I urge you to join us and show your support in walking for fitness, and in reducing the use of traffic vehicles for one day. This will tell how much we care about our environment.’

Besides building a walking culture, the event also helps the CUHK community be conscious of energy consumption, and enjoy our beautiful campus from a different angle. Professor Chu said, ‘Modern life is convenience-driven and comfort-oriented. We tend to eat more instant food, ride/drive more and exercise less. I suppose campus life follows a similar pattern. This results in heavy reliance on shuttle buses. These services are costly, consume fuel, and pollute our environment. Some of us prefer to wait for 10 minutes to take a bus journey than to walk to the spot which may be five minutes away.’ In view of this, more options will be installed to encourage walking. Scenic and convenient pedestrian links such as footbridges, vertical lifts and footpaths have been developed to enable fast and easy movement up and down the campus.

Let’s take steps towards a better environment. For online registration, please click here . Deadline for registration is 24 February.