Unmanned landing
"No Man Landing" is an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) and multi-media immersive experience design centered around the Shanghai Bund.
Starting from the "city check-in" phenomenon on social media, the project connects Xiaohongshu, fictional archive websites, paper flyers, physical Puzzle Boxes, and real city spaces within the same narrative path, allowing players to start from an ordinary piece of Xiaohongshu content and gradually enter an urban investigation where truth and fiction are hard to distinguish.
Players no longer merely use the Bund as a backdrop for photos, but instead need to search for the people and stories behind the buildings, streets, and urban memories.
Year of Completion:
2026
Results:
Cumulative Impressions: 1.5M+
Cumulative Reads: 350K+
Cumulative Engagements: 9,000+
Responsible for:
Independent Production
Project Background
When Cities Gradually Become "A Beautiful Backdrop"
Social media has transformed the way we view cities. People quickly arrive at a location, find a camera angle, shoot, post, and move on to the next. In this process, architecture is progressively compressed into visual symbols, while the people, history, and urban memories that once unfolded here remain hidden behind the brightly lit facades.
The Bund is one of the most typical urban spaces of this phenomenon.
Consequently, I began to think:
What would happen if social media ceased to just let people "see" the Bund, but instead became an entry point into the stories behind it?
This makes us wonder: if "more immersive" and "more stimulating" experiences become the norm, how will "entertainment" evolve in the future? Could the "most stimulating" experience of all—death itself—be designed as an entertainment product for people to "consume"?
Design goals
I hope to re-establish the relationship between players and real urban spaces.
Instead of directly introducing the history of the Bund to players, I prefer to give them the feeling of: "I discovered this myself."
Therefore, rather than adopting traditional exhibition or guided tour methods, the project constructs an investigation taking place in the real world. Players need to actively search for characters, read archives, organize connections between events, solve physical puzzles, and ultimately come to the Bund in person to find the end of the story.
Why ARG?
ARG turns the real world itself into a game interface. It does not clearly tell players, "The game starts here." Instead, a piece of social media content, a forgotten flyer, a web archive, or a real physical chest can all become part of the story.
This blurring of the boundaries between reality and fiction is precisely what can transform urban spaces, which are otherwise quickly consumed, back into places worthy of investigation.
In this project, exploring the city itself is the gameplay.
Rabbit Hole
I created a Xiaohongshu account:
"A Shu in Shanghai"
On the surface, the account records "A Shu's" life in Shanghai and the experience of sorting through his grandfather's belongings. As the content continues to be posted, some anomalies gradually appear in the story:
Old objects left by grandfather,
A missing hot air balloon incident during the Republic of China period,
Strange names,
Hidden archives...
Players will not receive a "start game" notification directly. They only need to have one thought:
"Is this actually real?"
And the story has already begun.
Player Flow
I created a Xiaohongshu account:
"Ashu in Shanghai"
On the surface, the account records "Ashu's" life in Shanghai and his experience of sorting through his grandfather's belongings. As the content continues to be posted, some anomalies gradually appear in the story:
The old things left behind by grandfather,
A missing hot air balloon incident during the Republic of China period,
Strange names,
Hidden archives...
Players do not directly receive a "start game" notification. They only need to have one thought:
"Is this actually real?"
The story has already begun.
Transmedia storytelling
The complete story of "Ashu in Shanghai" has been intentionally fragmented across different media.
Social Media
I created a Xiaohongshu account:
"A Shu in Shanghai"
On the surface, the account documents "A Shu's" life in Shanghai and the experience of sorting through his grandfather's belongings. As the content continues to be published, some anomalies gradually appear in the story:
The old belongings left by grandfather,
A missing hot air balloon incident during the Republic of China period,
Strange names,
Hidden archives...
Players will not receive a "start game" notification directly. They only need to have one thought:
"Is this actually real?"
The story has already begun.
PUZZLE Design
Puzzles do not exist independently of the narrative. Every puzzle solved rewards the player with new story information, which in turn becomes a tool for the next puzzle. For example:
Zhou Huaimin
↓
Hot air balloon disappearance incident
↓
Character relationships
↓
Feng Youlan
↓
1962
↓
Pegboard
↓
"Feng 1962"
In this way, puzzles become a means for players to understand the story, rather than just questions that need to be answered.
Physical PUZZLE BOX
Investigations in the digital world will eventually point to a real, existing object. Players need to manipulate different structures in the Puzzle Box, advancing the story through mechanisms, passwords, and physical clues. Compared to simple web-based puzzles, the physical device brings weight, touch, sound, and spatial feedback. For the first time, players truly realize:
Everything previously investigated online has entered the real world.
ENDING
After opening the final box, the player will find a letter left by their grandfather. The player had previously thought that a greater secret was hidden behind these puzzles, but finally realized that the grandfather did not design these puzzles to leave behind some important legacy.
He knew that his departure would plunge his grandson into grief. Therefore, he hid his stories, old belongings, and memories into a series of puzzles.
Hoping that even though he is no longer there, he can still accompany his grandson a little further.
From Online to Shanghai
The final puzzle has no answer; it only has a location. After obtaining the ultimate clue, players must leave their computers and phones. They need to come to the Shanghai Bund in person to find the hidden location—The Peninsula Shanghai—based on coordinates, environmental photos, and story information. This hotel was once the former site of the Shanghai Masonic Hall.
The real-world buildings, shrubs, roads, and spatial relationships officially become part of the game mechanics at this stage.
The game no longer takes place in a "designed scene."
Shanghai is the game scene itself.
Technical Development
To truly connect the scattered clues across different media in the ARG, I simultaneously developed both the web-based and physical installation technologies, combining the players' searching and puzzle-solving with real-world interactions into a seamless, continuous experience.
Webpage
I designed and developed the Shanghai Archive website (https://shanghai-archive.xyz/), which serves as the core tool for players to conduct online investigations.
The website is not a traditional information display page, but is designed as a "database archive" that actually exists within the story's world.
Players can search by entering character names, years, or puzzle answers, and obtain corresponding content based on different keywords:
Character profiles
Historical events
Images and documents
Hidden clues
Puzzle feedback
Next-stage investigation information
For example, after searching for "Zhou Huaimin," players will gradually discover the hot air balloon incident and other related characters; continuing to search for "Feng Youlan" and specific years will trigger new hidden information.
Through this structure, the act of searching itself becomes part of the gameplay mechanics.
Microcontroller
The Puzzle Box internally combines physical structures with electronic interaction.
I used a microcontroller to connect different sensors and electronic components, enabling players' operations on the mechanisms to generate corresponding sound, light, or mechanical feedback.
Physical puzzles are no longer just static props, but can now:
Detect → Calculate → Feedback
Detect player operations
↓
Determine puzzle state
↓
Trigger corresponding feedback
↓
Unlock the next stage of content
This instant feedback helps players confirm their reasoning, while giving the "secret files" in the digital world a real physical presence.
Flyer
I designed a promotional leaflet ostensibly about the Bund. It looks like an ordinary piece of printed tourist information, but subtle, abnormal clues are embedded within its layout and content, allowing it to serve both as a medium of communication in physical space and as an offline entry point for players to enter the ARG.
Printmaking Puzzle
The printmaking section extends the overall visual narrative of the project. Compared to the information delivery on web pages and social media, printmaking emphasizes atmosphere, a sense of history, and emotional expression. It allows the memories and imagination behind the Bund to be presented in a more material way, becoming a part of the project's world view.
Exhibition
The work was exhibited at ARS ELECTRONICA 2025 (September 3 to 7, Linz, Austria), gaining widespread professional recognition within the global art and technology community and attracting the active participation of a diverse audience.
Other Projects
Unmanned landing
"No Man Landing" is an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) and multi-media immersive experience design centered around the Shanghai Bund.
Starting from the "city check-in" phenomenon on social media, the project connects Xiaohongshu, fictional archive websites, paper flyers, physical Puzzle Boxes, and real city spaces within the same narrative path, allowing players to start from an ordinary piece of Xiaohongshu content and gradually enter an urban investigation where truth and fiction are hard to distinguish.
Players no longer merely use the Bund as a backdrop for photos, but instead need to search for the people and stories behind the buildings, streets, and urban memories.
Year of Completion:
2026
Results:
Cumulative Impressions: 1.5M+
Cumulative Reads: 350K+
Cumulative Engagements: 9,000+
Responsible for:
Independent Production
Project Background
When Cities Gradually Become "A Beautiful Backdrop"
Social media has transformed the way we view cities. People quickly arrive at a location, find a camera angle, shoot, post, and move on to the next. In this process, architecture is progressively compressed into visual symbols, while the people, history, and urban memories that once unfolded here remain hidden behind the brightly lit facades.
The Bund is one of the most typical urban spaces of this phenomenon.
Consequently, I began to think:
What would happen if social media ceased to just let people "see" the Bund, but instead became an entry point into the stories behind it?
This makes us wonder: if "more immersive" and "more stimulating" experiences become the norm, how will "entertainment" evolve in the future? Could the "most stimulating" experience of all—death itself—be designed as an entertainment product for people to "consume"?
Design goals
I hope to re-establish the relationship between players and real urban spaces.
Instead of directly introducing the history of the Bund to players, I prefer to give them the feeling of: "I discovered this myself."
Therefore, rather than adopting traditional exhibition or guided tour methods, the project constructs an investigation taking place in the real world. Players need to actively search for characters, read archives, organize connections between events, solve physical puzzles, and ultimately come to the Bund in person to find the end of the story.
Why ARG?
ARG turns the real world itself into a game interface. It does not clearly tell players, "The game starts here." Instead, a piece of social media content, a forgotten flyer, a web archive, or a real physical chest can all become part of the story.
This blurring of the boundaries between reality and fiction is precisely what can transform urban spaces, which are otherwise quickly consumed, back into places worthy of investigation.
In this project, exploring the city itself is the gameplay.
Rabbit Hole
I created a Xiaohongshu account:
"A Shu in Shanghai"
On the surface, the account records "A Shu's" life in Shanghai and the experience of sorting through his grandfather's belongings. As the content continues to be posted, some anomalies gradually appear in the story:
Old objects left by grandfather,
A missing hot air balloon incident during the Republic of China period,
Strange names,
Hidden archives...
Players will not receive a "start game" notification directly. They only need to have one thought:
"Is this actually real?"
And the story has already begun.
Player Flow
I created a Xiaohongshu account:
"Ashu in Shanghai"
On the surface, the account records "Ashu's" life in Shanghai and his experience of sorting through his grandfather's belongings. As the content continues to be posted, some anomalies gradually appear in the story:
The old things left behind by grandfather,
A missing hot air balloon incident during the Republic of China period,
Strange names,
Hidden archives...
Players do not directly receive a "start game" notification. They only need to have one thought:
"Is this actually real?"
The story has already begun.
Transmedia storytelling
The complete story of "Ashu in Shanghai" has been intentionally fragmented across different media.
Social Media
I created a Xiaohongshu account:
"A Shu in Shanghai"
On the surface, the account documents "A Shu's" life in Shanghai and the experience of sorting through his grandfather's belongings. As the content continues to be published, some anomalies gradually appear in the story:
The old belongings left by grandfather,
A missing hot air balloon incident during the Republic of China period,
Strange names,
Hidden archives...
Players will not receive a "start game" notification directly. They only need to have one thought:
"Is this actually real?"
The story has already begun.
PUZZLE Design
Puzzles do not exist independently of the narrative. Every puzzle solved rewards the player with new story information, which in turn becomes a tool for the next puzzle. For example:
Zhou Huaimin
↓
Hot air balloon disappearance incident
↓
Character relationships
↓
Feng Youlan
↓
1962
↓
Pegboard
↓
"Feng 1962"
In this way, puzzles become a means for players to understand the story, rather than just questions that need to be answered.
Physical PUZZLE BOX
Investigations in the digital world will eventually point to a real, existing object. Players need to manipulate different structures in the Puzzle Box, advancing the story through mechanisms, passwords, and physical clues. Compared to simple web-based puzzles, the physical device brings weight, touch, sound, and spatial feedback. For the first time, players truly realize:
Everything previously investigated online has entered the real world.
ENDING
After opening the final box, the player will find a letter left by their grandfather. The player had previously thought that a greater secret was hidden behind these puzzles, but finally realized that the grandfather did not design these puzzles to leave behind some important legacy.
He knew that his departure would plunge his grandson into grief. Therefore, he hid his stories, old belongings, and memories into a series of puzzles.
Hoping that even though he is no longer there, he can still accompany his grandson a little further.
From Online to Shanghai
The final puzzle has no answer; it only has a location. After obtaining the ultimate clue, players must leave their computers and phones. They need to come to the Shanghai Bund in person to find the hidden location—The Peninsula Shanghai—based on coordinates, environmental photos, and story information. This hotel was once the former site of the Shanghai Masonic Hall.
The real-world buildings, shrubs, roads, and spatial relationships officially become part of the game mechanics at this stage.
The game no longer takes place in a "designed scene."
Shanghai is the game scene itself.
Technical Development
To truly connect the scattered clues across different media in the ARG, I simultaneously developed both the web-based and physical installation technologies, combining the players' searching and puzzle-solving with real-world interactions into a seamless, continuous experience.
Webpage
I designed and developed the Shanghai Archive website (https://shanghai-archive.xyz/), which serves as the core tool for players to conduct online investigations.
The website is not a traditional information display page, but is designed as a "database archive" that actually exists within the story's world.
Players can search by entering character names, years, or puzzle answers, and obtain corresponding content based on different keywords:
Character profiles
Historical events
Images and documents
Hidden clues
Puzzle feedback
Next-stage investigation information
For example, after searching for "Zhou Huaimin," players will gradually discover the hot air balloon incident and other related characters; continuing to search for "Feng Youlan" and specific years will trigger new hidden information.
Through this structure, the act of searching itself becomes part of the gameplay mechanics.
Microcontroller
The Puzzle Box internally combines physical structures with electronic interaction.
I used a microcontroller to connect different sensors and electronic components, enabling players' operations on the mechanisms to generate corresponding sound, light, or mechanical feedback.
Physical puzzles are no longer just static props, but can now:
Detect → Calculate → Feedback
Detect player operations
↓
Determine puzzle state
↓
Trigger corresponding feedback
↓
Unlock the next stage of content
This instant feedback helps players confirm their reasoning, while giving the "secret files" in the digital world a real physical presence.
Flyer
I designed a promotional leaflet ostensibly about the Bund. It looks like an ordinary piece of printed tourist information, but subtle, abnormal clues are embedded within its layout and content, allowing it to serve both as a medium of communication in physical space and as an offline entry point for players to enter the ARG.
Printmaking Puzzle
The printmaking section extends the overall visual narrative of the project. Compared to the information delivery on web pages and social media, printmaking emphasizes atmosphere, a sense of history, and emotional expression. It allows the memories and imagination behind the Bund to be presented in a more material way, becoming a part of the project's world view.
Exhibition
The work was exhibited at ARS ELECTRONICA 2025 (September 3 to 7, Linz, Austria), gaining widespread professional recognition within the global art and technology community and attracting the active participation of a diverse audience.
Other Projects
Unmanned landing
"No Man Landing" is an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) and multi-media immersive experience design centered around the Shanghai Bund.
Starting from the "city check-in" phenomenon on social media, the project connects Xiaohongshu, fictional archive websites, paper flyers, physical Puzzle Boxes, and real city spaces within the same narrative path, allowing players to start from an ordinary piece of Xiaohongshu content and gradually enter an urban investigation where truth and fiction are hard to distinguish.
Players no longer merely use the Bund as a backdrop for photos, but instead need to search for the people and stories behind the buildings, streets, and urban memories.
Year of Completion:
2026
Results:
Cumulative Impressions: 1.5M+
Cumulative Reads: 350K+
Cumulative Engagements: 9,000+
Responsible for:
Independent Production
Project Background
When Cities Gradually Become "A Beautiful Backdrop"
Social media has transformed the way we view cities. People quickly arrive at a location, find a camera angle, shoot, post, and move on to the next. In this process, architecture is progressively compressed into visual symbols, while the people, history, and urban memories that once unfolded here remain hidden behind the brightly lit facades.
The Bund is one of the most typical urban spaces of this phenomenon.
Consequently, I began to think:
What would happen if social media ceased to just let people "see" the Bund, but instead became an entry point into the stories behind it?
This makes us wonder: if "more immersive" and "more stimulating" experiences become the norm, how will "entertainment" evolve in the future? Could the "most stimulating" experience of all—death itself—be designed as an entertainment product for people to "consume"?
Design goals
I hope to re-establish the relationship between players and real urban spaces.
Instead of directly introducing the history of the Bund to players, I prefer to give them the feeling of: "I discovered this myself."
Therefore, rather than adopting traditional exhibition or guided tour methods, the project constructs an investigation taking place in the real world. Players need to actively search for characters, read archives, organize connections between events, solve physical puzzles, and ultimately come to the Bund in person to find the end of the story.
Why ARG?
ARG turns the real world itself into a game interface. It does not clearly tell players, "The game starts here." Instead, a piece of social media content, a forgotten flyer, a web archive, or a real physical chest can all become part of the story.
This blurring of the boundaries between reality and fiction is precisely what can transform urban spaces, which are otherwise quickly consumed, back into places worthy of investigation.
In this project, exploring the city itself is the gameplay.
Rabbit Hole
I created a Xiaohongshu account:
"A Shu in Shanghai"
On the surface, the account records "A Shu's" life in Shanghai and the experience of sorting through his grandfather's belongings. As the content continues to be posted, some anomalies gradually appear in the story:
Old objects left by grandfather,
A missing hot air balloon incident during the Republic of China period,
Strange names,
Hidden archives...
Players will not receive a "start game" notification directly. They only need to have one thought:
"Is this actually real?"
And the story has already begun.
Player Flow
I created a Xiaohongshu account:
"Ashu in Shanghai"
On the surface, the account records "Ashu's" life in Shanghai and his experience of sorting through his grandfather's belongings. As the content continues to be posted, some anomalies gradually appear in the story:
The old things left behind by grandfather,
A missing hot air balloon incident during the Republic of China period,
Strange names,
Hidden archives...
Players do not directly receive a "start game" notification. They only need to have one thought:
"Is this actually real?"
The story has already begun.
Transmedia storytelling
The complete story of "Ashu in Shanghai" has been intentionally fragmented across different media.
Social Media
I created a Xiaohongshu account:
"A Shu in Shanghai"
On the surface, the account documents "A Shu's" life in Shanghai and the experience of sorting through his grandfather's belongings. As the content continues to be published, some anomalies gradually appear in the story:
The old belongings left by grandfather,
A missing hot air balloon incident during the Republic of China period,
Strange names,
Hidden archives...
Players will not receive a "start game" notification directly. They only need to have one thought:
"Is this actually real?"
The story has already begun.
PUZZLE Design
Puzzles do not exist independently of the narrative. Every puzzle solved rewards the player with new story information, which in turn becomes a tool for the next puzzle. For example:
Zhou Huaimin
↓
Hot air balloon disappearance incident
↓
Character relationships
↓
Feng Youlan
↓
1962
↓
Pegboard
↓
"Feng 1962"
In this way, puzzles become a means for players to understand the story, rather than just questions that need to be answered.
Physical PUZZLE BOX
Investigations in the digital world will eventually point to a real, existing object. Players need to manipulate different structures in the Puzzle Box, advancing the story through mechanisms, passwords, and physical clues. Compared to simple web-based puzzles, the physical device brings weight, touch, sound, and spatial feedback. For the first time, players truly realize:
Everything previously investigated online has entered the real world.
ENDING
After opening the final box, the player will find a letter left by their grandfather. The player had previously thought that a greater secret was hidden behind these puzzles, but finally realized that the grandfather did not design these puzzles to leave behind some important legacy.
He knew that his departure would plunge his grandson into grief. Therefore, he hid his stories, old belongings, and memories into a series of puzzles.
Hoping that even though he is no longer there, he can still accompany his grandson a little further.
From Online to Shanghai
The final puzzle has no answer; it only has a location. After obtaining the ultimate clue, players must leave their computers and phones. They need to come to the Shanghai Bund in person to find the hidden location—The Peninsula Shanghai—based on coordinates, environmental photos, and story information. This hotel was once the former site of the Shanghai Masonic Hall.
The real-world buildings, shrubs, roads, and spatial relationships officially become part of the game mechanics at this stage.
The game no longer takes place in a "designed scene."
Shanghai is the game scene itself.
Technical Development
To truly connect the scattered clues across different media in the ARG, I simultaneously developed both the web-based and physical installation technologies, combining the players' searching and puzzle-solving with real-world interactions into a seamless, continuous experience.
Webpage
I designed and developed the Shanghai Archive website (https://shanghai-archive.xyz/), which serves as the core tool for players to conduct online investigations.
The website is not a traditional information display page, but is designed as a "database archive" that actually exists within the story's world.
Players can search by entering character names, years, or puzzle answers, and obtain corresponding content based on different keywords:
Character profiles
Historical events
Images and documents
Hidden clues
Puzzle feedback
Next-stage investigation information
For example, after searching for "Zhou Huaimin," players will gradually discover the hot air balloon incident and other related characters; continuing to search for "Feng Youlan" and specific years will trigger new hidden information.
Through this structure, the act of searching itself becomes part of the gameplay mechanics.
Microcontroller
The Puzzle Box internally combines physical structures with electronic interaction.
I used a microcontroller to connect different sensors and electronic components, enabling players' operations on the mechanisms to generate corresponding sound, light, or mechanical feedback.
Physical puzzles are no longer just static props, but can now:
Detect → Calculate → Feedback
Detect player operations
↓
Determine puzzle state
↓
Trigger corresponding feedback
↓
Unlock the next stage of content
This instant feedback helps players confirm their reasoning, while giving the "secret files" in the digital world a real physical presence.
Flyer
I designed a promotional leaflet ostensibly about the Bund. It looks like an ordinary piece of printed tourist information, but subtle, abnormal clues are embedded within its layout and content, allowing it to serve both as a medium of communication in physical space and as an offline entry point for players to enter the ARG.
Printmaking Puzzle
The printmaking section extends the overall visual narrative of the project. Compared to the information delivery on web pages and social media, printmaking emphasizes atmosphere, a sense of history, and emotional expression. It allows the memories and imagination behind the Bund to be presented in a more material way, becoming a part of the project's world view.
Exhibition
The work was exhibited at ARS ELECTRONICA 2025 (September 3 to 7, Linz, Austria), gaining widespread professional recognition within the global art and technology community and attracting the active participation of a diverse audience.