Before visiting a country park, you should think about how to keep in touch with others during your trip. Here you can learn about how to plan your trip with telecommunications in mind.

Always find company, and make sure you can remain in contact throughout the trip. You should ensure that your mobile phone, or walkie-talkie if you have one, is fully charged before you leave and that you have a spare battery ready. When hiking, you should try to switch off at least one mobile phone in your group and keep it as a backup.

When in a country park, you might not be able to use your mobile phone at all times. Network coverage is sometimes patchy. You can subscribe to a roaming service or bring along a prepaid SIM card issued by one of the mainland mobile network operators. In case of emergency at a place with no local mobile phone network coverage but roaming service is available, you may then call for assistance using the roaming service. With either of these options, you should be able to call for assistance during an emergency. Using a dual-band mobile phone, which works in both the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands, will also give you a better chance of successfully contacting the 999 emergency centre.

Walkie-talkies and Global Positioning System (GPS) devices can also be useful in emergencies. A walkie-talkie helps you keep in touch with your hiking group and can be used to monitor for distress calls from other hikers in more remote areas. A GPS device cannot be used for communications, but it will give you your exact location should you need the help of emergency services.

• More on using walkie-talkies and GPS devices in country parks
  http://www.gov.hk/en/residents/communication/mobilecomm/stayingintouch/walkietalkiesgps.htm