When was the last time you travelled abroad since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic? The spread of coronavirus forces countries around the world to impose travel restrictions for international travelers, such as virus testing and quarantines, due to disease prevention and control.
What can people to explore another country without traveling in reality?
HooHeeHaa, a Guangzhou youngster spent three years on restoring an entire Guangzhou in a game called "Cities: Skylines"(C:SL), which created a great chance for people around the world to discover the beauty of Guangzhou online during the pandemic time.
HooHeeHaa(Photo provided to Newsgd)
“I stared to play the game in 2016,” HooHeeHaa replied Newsgd.com in a text interview. “The first thing that pushed me was the attempts, somehow unsuccessful, of several Chinese and overseas "Cities: Skylines" (henceforth C:SL) players to rebuild their hometown cities due to lack of real-life 3-D models of buildings.”
According to HooHeeHaa, he once saw other players built a Beijing that was filled with European style suburban villas, which gave him the idea of doing better than them, showing his hometown with typical Chinese elements to foreigners.
People can see many landmarks of Guangzhou from the city that he built, such as the Five Rams Legend, Canton Tower, Tianhe Stadium and Guangzhou Metro.
“The third thing which drove me to play the game was the love for railway transits and interest in studying road traffic of Guangzhou,” said HooHeeHaa. “I thought it could be a lot of fun to see a crowded Line 3 in C:SL, just as in real life.”
Furthermore, HooHeeHaa also recorded the fast development of Guangzhou through the game.
He usually looks for inspiration by watching satellite pictures and field trips, and then adjusts the buildings and scenes in the game according to the changes in Guangzhou in reality.
“In 2017, the zone to the west of Pazhou Exhibition Center was still empty, but now dozens of high-rise buildings stand, including the headquarter of VIP shop and South China of Alibaba,”said he. “In addition to the developing industry, I also noticed growing green space in urban Guangzhou, since I used a lot of satellite images for reference and walked the streets for inspiration.”
Since the current map that he built in the game did not include Nansha District, HooHeeHaa indicated that he will create a Nansha District, one of the free trade zones in the province of Guangdong, as well as the sub-center of Guangzhou in the future.
Now, more and more young people are showing love to their hometown through building the cities in the game. HooHeeHaa has set a wide variety of offices in the game to welcome players from different regions in Guangdong that they can build Guangdong’s cities together in the future.
Videoprovided by HooHeeHaa
Author| Alice
Editor| Steven, Jerry
