What to know
- Adam Chen and Kai Xie began organizing weekly 10,000-step walks in the PATH in mid-December to help people meet and unwind during the colder months.
- The idea grew out of a work-free walking group Chen joined in the U.S., and later evolved into happy town, a platform for hosting community-led events in Toronto.
- Each Saturday morning, participants meet downtown for the walk, followed by optional mindfulness practices and hobby-based gatherings in a nearby food court.
- The free, agenda-free events have drawn growing crowds, offering a low-pressure alternative to networking and paid social spaces.
Two Toronto residents are turning the city’s underground PATH system into a space for connection and friendship through organized community winter walks and interactive events underground.
For most Torontonians, the PATH might just be a place they visit when it’s raining or snowing outside. Maybe it is the transition between a subway station and their office, or where they go to grab a bite between meetings. But for Adam Chen and Kai Xie, the underground system is not only a passage, but a spot to connect and make friends.
Since mid-December, the friends have been hosting weekly organized walks and varied activities in a downtown basement in the PATH. The idea is to provide a space where attendees can unwind from their busy routines and foster connection with other community members.
“We’re creating a space for them to just be able to be… to see people they might not know and maybe meet new people, and know that it’s OK to talk to them without anyone having an agenda,” Chen tells Now Toronto.
Chen says the idea is based on a group he used to be a part of when he lived in the United States for a job. The group, named Boardwalk, would connect a group of residents for a weekly walk on Saturdays, with one rule: no talking about work.
“It just allowed me to refresh and reboot and just, you know, feel that feeling. So, when I moved back to Canada, I kind of really missed having that space in my week, every week. So, I had a friend kind of say, ‘Hey, let’s try it out.’ And then before I knew it, she just put an event up, and was like, ‘Hey, we’re hosting this,’” he said.
That’s when he first created happy town, a source where Torontonians can join or host community events in the city, which his friend Xie later joined in. The group’s first events consisted of free, weekly walks, where a group would meet to get in 10,000 steps while making friends.
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At first, the walks were done outdoors, but with the arrival of winter, Chen saw a challenge trying to walk long distances in the freezing cold weather, and that’s when the PATH came in.
“In the States, it doesn’t, they don’t have winter like we do. So, it came to the point where it’s like, ‘I know I want to keep doing this every week, but how are we going to survive being outside? It’s like 10,000 steps,’” he said.
“Our requirements were, like, up around 10,000 steps with no traffic, and in a space where people can just get into the conversation and not focus on everything going on around them. So, the only thing we could find was the PATH.”
Before launching the project, the two friends paved their way through the underground system, using a map and a pen to ‘pave out a path in the PATH,’ and create a route for their weekly walks.
“That day, it was four hours long, but by the time we finished, we figured out the journey. So, now we have a loop, about a 10,000-step PATH walk that we do every week in the winter times.”
Since December, the friends have been meeting near the Eaton Centre’s indoor Christmas tree next to % Arabica to begin their walk every Saturday at 8 a.m. Following the PATH walk, attendees are also welcome to participate in a mindfulness practice and other activities.
Despite the early hour on a weekend, Chen says he has been seeing a growing turnout for the event, with about 10–20 people attending almost weekly, and even 50–60 people in one specific weekend.
A HOBBY MILL IN A BASEMENT
With growing demand for a connection space, Chen also had the idea of extending their weekly PATH walks into yet another community event.
Every week after the walks, the group also gathers at the Foodcourt Fairgrounds under the Aura Concourse Mall downtown, where attendees are welcome to host or join a table and connect with others over a great conversation, writing activities, or even their favourite hobbies.
“It’s actually just really inspiring when you sit around this table and realize everyone has a journey they took to be here and where they hope to go. And everyone could be from a completely different country, first language, who knows what their beliefs are or where they stand on things, but when you start with our stories, it just creates this potential for connection,” he said.
Since the Foodcourt Fairgrounds happen after the walk at around 10:30 a.m., Chen says he has seen an even greater turnout for the event, where about 40 people gathered last week.
CONNECTION WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK
Last year, Toronto saw a wave of community-led events, as residents hoped to foster friendships and find a way to spend the time in the city. From running groups to a collective scream to a massive picnic, Torontonians were definitely looking to connect.
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For Xie, one element that makes the PATH walks and food court gatherings powerful spaces to connect is the fact that attendees are welcome to join for free. Even though the PATH is not a public space, residents are allowed to walk it for free.
“I feel like sometimes when you pay some money and go to a private location, you’re like, ‘Oh, this is networking. I need to put on my LinkedIn brain,’” he said. “But I think by putting a third space, in the public realm, you can create a better environment where you don’t need to be doing that, and you can just be like, ready to connect with people.”
