Why can't the city walk be called a street stroll? How can strolling on the street become a city walk? Citywalk | Feynman | Road
A few days ago, a colleague in the office roast that it is better to call city walk than strolling around the street. The reporter listened with a hint of mockery in his tone.
"Of course, the two are different!" The reporter saw Feynman, a city walk enthusiast and organizer, in Hangzhou. He raised his voice and explained, "The most important thing about a city walk is chance. Isn't strolling on the road just walking? There's no such attraction."
Many short videos of Amway sharing popular routes explain the meaning as follows: strolling aimlessly in the city, driving straight at green lights, turning at red lights, feeling the vibrant vitality of the city on foot, searching for treasure shops and unique urban atmosphere.
On current social media platforms, this is one of the most popular keywords. According to data from a certain tourism platform, the most popular travel method among young people in June this year was city walk.
Sharp business people have discovered business opportunities from it. In the Internet era, traffic means wealth password. Will this trendy way of traveling become a new growth point in the consumer market?
Feynman and city walk enthusiasts.
The Logic of Enthusiasts
In mid May, Feynman first learned about City Walk on a short video platform and found it romantic and interesting. He quickly came up with a complete set of activity plans: selecting a starting point, arranging numbers in order of arrival, and guessing punches in order of numbers at each intersection. The winner can decide the direction of walking next. Later, as an English training teacher, he developed the "English version" which stipulated that only English could be spoken throughout the activity.
Having established the rules, Feynman is the primary executor and supervisor. For example, in the English version of the activity, if someone accidentally speaks Chinese, Feynman prepares a small water gun and will splash some water at him as punishment. In his view, this set of rules carries philosophical implications for life. When deciding the direction, someone can't help but give advice, "You shut up." Feynman will not hesitate to fight back, "This is the power of the winner." He will also tell the winner of the guessing game, "You can go wherever you want, just like your own life."
Feynman believes that city walk itself is a philosophy of life. "I don't know what scenery to see." He walked to the Deshou Palace, which was a "popular check-in spot", but he had never heard of it before. He liked the name of the palace, called "Chonghua", and "the cultural height of the Song Dynasty was already there." He also walked to an unknown but very bright small alley, which had a Jiangnan ancient architectural style. Without commercial development, it was inhabited by indigenous people. Of course, he also walked into a slightly dilapidated small temple and was once charged a high price by a tea room he accidentally entered. "Life is like this, and many uncontrollable things can only be taken lightly."
Before encountering the city walk, Feynman's way of traveling was vastly different. He will fully understand the tourist destination, browse through social media information, consult familiar friends, and then definitely visit all the worthwhile check-in points. And city walk is almost completely opposite to this purpose. Feynman realized that he had been changed unconsciously. Last month, he traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand on a 6-day, 5-night itinerary. Without doing any homework beforehand, he went to social media platforms to "shake people" and met a new stranger every day. "Whenever you meet someone, you play with them; whenever you encounter a scenery, you appreciate the scenery."
On the way to the city walk.
The possibility of commercialization
On the afternoon of the interview, Feynman organized an event in Jiuxi, which was basically free. There are a total of 9 registrations, and the agreed time has arrived. 4 people are waiting at the assembly point, 2 people are on the way, others are breaking the appointment, some have missed the time, some have received an interview notice temporarily, and some have received an interview notice due to the hot weather.
In order to prevent frequent pigeon watching, Feynman charges a deposit of 10 yuan in advance, and the English version of the event costs 20 yuan. Refunds are only available in person. In addition, participants need to purchase an insurance policy of 2.9 yuan per person for one day to share the risk of Feynman as the organizer. This is the game rule set from the beginning. However, some interested people have heard that they need to pay a deposit and buy insurance. After a brief consultation, there has been no response.
The reporter suggested to Feynman to commercialize the city walk. In fact, this form of activity has emerged in the past few years. Under the guidance of a professional storyteller, everyone follows the planned route, strolls along the road and tells stories, focusing on a deep experience of urban history, culture, landscape, and other aspects. This year, this concept has been redefined on social platforms, further amplifying freedom and arbitrariness. Regardless of the form, there have been attempts at professional operations on the market, with the former resembling tourism product planners and the latter more like event organizers and planners.
However, in the perception of many people, city walks must possess pure and public welfare attributes. Feynman initiated the city walk with the original intention of meeting social needs. He has an outgoing personality and is very sociable. Just for fun, he moved from Ningbo to Hangzhou in March this year and returns to work in Ningbo every Friday to Sunday. In April and May this year, he participated in mountain climbing activities around Hangzhou whenever he had free time, climbing three or four times a week. "If there is no social space, I feel very uncomfortable, like being locked up in prison." To Feynman, meeting people and speaking are as important as air and food.
When Fei Man first arrived in Hangzhou, he experienced the paid city walk. That night during a tour of the Grand Canal, a group of them set off from a square by the canal and walked along the canal without anyone speaking throughout the journey. Feynman realized later that it might have been a blind date event, and the team leader kept emphasizing that everyone should seize the opportunity and enhance their understanding. "Perhaps because I have paid money, the overall atmosphere is particularly different."
From a business perspective, city walk does not have an advantage. Reporters have followed similar activities on social platforms, with prices ranging from 25 yuan to 40 yuan per person. Generally, the number of people recruited each time is limited to 20 people. The centralized activity time is about 3 hours. The route is designed to be 10 kilometers long. The organizer provides tour leader services, small Dim sum and water. Carefully calculating the accounts and planning the event took a lot of effort, with only a few hundred yuan in profit. In addition, after the event is charged, participants have requirements and expectations for organization and planning, but it is difficult for the city walk to achieve differentiation and provide matching services.
More importantly, traffic can be hot for a while, but often short-lived. Feynman clearly felt that there was an invisible hand streaming related topics. His short videos he usually posts only have a few thousand views, but recently, the content about city walk has been watched by 200000 people. "This may be a platform 'prank', launching new topics every once in a while to generate freshness and maintain user stickiness," Feynman said. When the heat subsides, everyone will experience aesthetic fatigue, and the number of people who want to participate in it will inevitably decrease sharply. If it is considered a serious business, it may be difficult to maintain.
Even if he doesn't make money, Feynman still plans to organize more events - purely for fun.
On the way to the city walk.
