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When women from mainland China are newly arrived in Hong Kong, their first difficulty is usually environmental stress. Their socio-economic situation often limits their ability to express their expectations related to their living space. In order to enable the women to voice their views and become participants in urban planning, our research group adopted interdisciplinary participatory action research, including non-participant observation, in-depth interviews, focus groups, photovoice, visual simulation-modelling workshops, etc. In the process, we asked these newly arrived woman to 1) offer comments on their current living situation; 2) describe clearly their preferred housing environment; and 3) propose suggestions to the Hong Kong Government in respect to housing and neighbourhood planning. This article intends to demonstrate the validity of the use of these methods to promote participatory democracy in the context of an urban living environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]