While the ATHR stretches across three provinces in China, my research is specifically interested in the part that is located in Yunnan. This includes such interesting places like Lijiang, Dali, Shangri La, Xishuangbanna, Pu’er and many more. If you are on or around the ATHR, no matter where exactly, I am happy to come to you. Just drop me a message through the contact form and I’ll find you.
I will be in Yunnan from early April 2016 to September 2016, so if you are around the ATHR at any point in these six months and could imagine me accompanying you on your hike, please contact me via the contact form provided. I am happy to join you for the full trip or part of it, 1-day trips or multi-day hikes, whichever you are doing. If you only wnat me to come along for part of your trip that is perfectly fine as well.
So, what would the data collection part of me going along on your trip look like? While with you I would be interested in talking to you of course. Instead of the traditional face-to-face interview style however, we would be having so-called walking interviews.Throughout our hike together I would like to talk to you and get your view on what recreational walking means to you and what role the ATHR has in your hiking experience. These interviews are really more like conversation that we have as the situation arises. It is a very open and free style of data collection for both researcher and participants, and of course you always would have the choice to simply not answer a question you don’t want to. I would at times be recording our conversations, always with your permission and take notes. If you are still unsure what it would entail, ask me questions through the contact form.
As part of my research I would also be asking you to take photos of situations, events and places that carry some meaning for your hiking experience. Additionally I will be taking photos as well to document certain situations. However, you have the option to not appear in these images or be edited out of you wish. To make it more appealing, I would be providing you with two action cameras (kind of like GoPros) for the duration of our hike together.