About Us

Discovery provides new knowledge, accumulated over time.  University is a repository of knowledge gained over centuries and millennium.  It is thus not only unique but appropriate that a pioneering Centre for Exploration be founded at the University of Hong Kong in order to perpetuate and motivate the spirit of exploration, be it through research or education. 

The internet age provided an efficient and inclusive means for the spread of new discoveries, and thus propagating of knowledge.  The creation of a website for this new HKU WHMCE, bearing my humble name as prefix, is an honor.  This website would allow me, as well as my many colleagues, to share our work and findings with the world at large, be it for academics, students or the public. 

I hope through this new website, much of our work over the last half century, as well as new work we are embarking upon, will have a platform for sharing.  Much of our work in the past can be considered niche and marginal, little-known to the world.  Through this new portal, such knowledge and information would become available to many who may take an interest in exploration and discoveries.  That will be the goal and purpose of setting up this website. 

Our team at the Wong How Man Centre for Exploration (WHMCE) here at the University of Hong Kong is excited to welcome you to our new website!

You will find many things to explore and learn about which will provide insight into the research and exploration projects we have completed and those ongoing and in development in which you might wish to participate.  

We also hope this new website will serve as an archive and research platform for those who wish to learn more about HKU’s Chair Explorer, Dr. Wong How Man, and his China Exploration and Research Society (CERS), which is the direct inspiration for our WHMCE.  

The decades-long work Dr. Wong and his teams have undertaken throughout China and Southeast Asia—with numerous publications, films, photographs, and other sources of documentation of their discoveries—we present to you here. In time, we will add more of these resources to this website, some of which are rare and exist nowhere else, making it a digital archive for understanding CERS’s historical legacy and at the same time a global platform for our students, researchers and international partners to discover what the Wong How Man Centre for Exploration offers.  

We welcome your interest and your participation! Please contact us through our website and link up with us on the different channels mentioned here. Sign up for our talks and learn more about the opportunities waiting for you. Joining the WHMCE and participating in our exploration projects will offer you experiences you simply cannot find anywhere else, or at any other university. Whether locally or overseas, each of our projects reflects our values and two of the most important are: nurturing your spirit of curiosity about the natural and cultural worlds in Asia, and then getting you out into that world so you can make your own discoveries first-hand. If you are ready for a challenge and to push yourself beyond your ‘comfort zone’, contact us and let us help you begin that journey!