Surveys fail to flatter life in Hong Kong

While more and more people are coming to visit Hong Kong each year, reports released over the past week suggest that the city is becoming less attractive to actually live in.


First up, a report which ranks the world's cities in terms of cost of living for expatriate residents saw Hong Kong leap 20 places to the 32nd most expensive in the world.



More http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/surveys-fail-to-flatter-life-in-hong-kong-2154756.html

Has Hong Kong ever had much going for it besides comparatively low taxes, extremely inexpensive foreign domestic help, and cheap and legal prostitution?


I appreciate the first and don't require the other two.

I can think of many things going for HK: Good schools, safe environment, world class public transportation, fairly nice climate, closeness to many lovely places, well educated workforce, great hiking, gorgeous skyline...

HK is expensive to live in BUT the majority of the cost is housing cost (plus education). Once you have the home sorted actually it is pretty cheap......the transport is dirt cheap (where can a tram cost you $2....that's like 30 cents AUD.......and food from the markets is extremely cheap.....my home grocery bills came down by like 75% despite the fact I am feeding x2 helpers extra and despite inflation)

I agree with axptguy HK has many wonderful features....the safety here is ridiculously good (very little by the way of random violence), lack of road rage, very efficient service sector (ever tried to deal with tradies back home.....? waited 3 days for them to fix my broken toilet.....here they were here within 15 minutes......not a joke!)

Also it is a place where hard work reaps consummate rewards......

axpatguy38, this is not an attack on you personally, but (as you probably would expect) I disagree with you on many of those points.


* good schools, well-educated workforce: disagree


The HK educational system is heavy on memorization and rote learning, which means that it performs well against other places in terms of standardized test scores. The reality is, though that the schools, combined with other cultural factors at work, churn out loads of real estate and insurance agents and shop assistants. Most of the same children who are, for example, pressured to memorize bits of poetry and then perform them, North-Korean-Style, with robotic hand gestures and frozen-in-place smiles will go on to ... work in a Mannings or a similar establishment.



* safe environment: agree (with some caveats)


There is violent crime in Hong Kong, of course, though probably less than in a comparably-sized city in Western Europe or N. America. On the other hand, the English-language media in HK are just as likely to report on a fire or a robbery in the United States or Australia or Russia as on a violent crime here in HK ... which has a distorting effect on one's perceptions. Also, it's not as if my wife and I moved here from a violent, war-torn failed state. We'd never been mugged or assaulted in our lives before moving here and Hong Kong's daily scrum (having to elbow / being elbowed just walking down the sidewalk, getting on/off the MTR, etc.) entails more violence than we were accustomed to before.



* world class public transportation: agree



* fairly nice climate: disagree (but this is subjective)


I'm not a fan of the 8 months of unremitting humidity and heat that we're treated to here, but I acknowledge that those who grew up in a place that was freezing cold for most of the year or in an extremely arid desert land might feel differently.



* closeness to many lovely places: disagree (but this is subjective)


I have nothing against S.E. Asia but would not travel there for pleasure. My wife and I are fond of S. Korea and Japan and have spent time in both places ... but this seems like a bit of a weak selling point for HK.



* great hiking, gorgeous skyline: disagree


The horrendous, Bladerunner-esque nature of the pollution that smothers HK for most of the year makes regular hiking (and outdoor exertion in general) seem unwise and it's difficult to appreciate the skyline if you can't really see it very well.

Lucas, can you give me the names of a few cities that (you think) have more going for them than HK? That way, I might be able to work out what you're smokin...

"The horrendous, Bladerunner-esque nature of the pollution that smothers HK for most of the year makes regular hiking (and outdoor exertion in general) seem unwise and it's difficult to appreciate the skyline if you can't really see it very well."


Clueless...


Maybe try getting out of the city and don't hike in Central.

I've lived in the NT for over 15 years and hike in the area daily(dogs).

The sky is blue, the air is fresh and clean and kiddies play in pools and gardens.


Stick to your offices and high rise apartments in the city and continue complaining about your life...

> Clueless...


> Maybe try getting out of the city and don't hike in Central.


I spent years living in the New Territories myself and still go there multiple times a week for various reasons and asserting that there's a huge difference, pollution-wise, between the NT (closer to the source of most of our pollution, the Mainland) and parts further south is ridiculous.


Open your eyes and look (really look) at the sky next time. It is indeed blueish gray, but note that it's a pretty much uniform blueish gray smear and that you probably can't actually see any clouds. If you can see clouds, as I sometimes could while looking out of the windows in my living room (in the NT), they sort of melt into the rest of the sky rather than being distinct.


You're looking up at the shroud of pollution.


At best, you're escaping from the relatively minor effects of roadside pollution.


The local govt and environmental groups pretend that almost all of HK's pollution is generated in HK because it lets the govt off the hook w/re to taking the issue up with our friends to the north and it's not as if green groups are going to flit across the border and protest there.

Does anyone have problems with noisy neighbors upstairs moving furniture, stomping around until late...1 AM late and sometimes wearing high heels...For some reason I keep getting unlucky with this and it drives me mad, otherwise HK has many great advantages for a small busy city.

My wife says the same. "Like living in a SciFi movie".


Noisy neigbors: occasionally we hear their kids run around but no big deal. Certainly if the walked around at 1am in heels I would have a little chat.

This is my second time I have lived in HK, as a child and now as an adult. In total 21 years.


Some things still drive me up the wall! But for me the pros out weigh the cons

filmset?

more like a rerun of an old topic similar to the ATV runs of nostalgic cinema of yesteryear in the early hours.


I really don't understand how peolple can moan about how bad life is here in place they've chosen to live. It says a lot about their character; they should take time to re-evaluate their situation and ask why they stay here?


I should really move to Nepal, up in the mountains if I want clean air and cthen I'll have cheaper living. Oh I forgot that life there may not be as convenient, say getting a packet of cigarettes at 4 in the morning or hailing that taxi to take me home pub crawling with friends. No, that's right you have to walk home after the drinks at their only inn. Baghdad sounds cheap oo, don't have to pay much for services and utilities ços they don't exist. But then it's cheap!


If HK doesn't fit, just move. Don't whine about it. I won't do the racist bit and say "Go back to your country".


Please move and keep on moving until you find that *special* place where everything is good, cheap and enveloped by their own eco-friendly atmosphere. Please then do write back and tell us where, so we can move there or envy you from here.


Oh, I doubt the whores there will be as cheap as here though ;-)

great post madtown.

Whinging and whining about it and being outraged doesn't change anything either.


Use that outrage of yours constructively...I look forward to you starting the HK coalition (you've got heaps of knowledge about it), make sure you keep us all posted on your developments on Asiaxpat...I'm sure you'll do a great job!

There are groups pressurizing the government to take action over pollution - such as Clear The Air - but as we all know, HK is not a democracy and the governing body has many vested interests. The biggest polluters in HK - the electricity companies and the bus companies - are owned by tycoons. Until the government stands up to them and imposes stricter pollution controls and green taxes nothing much will change.


I certainly don't think the govenrment is likely to be swayed by the outrage of a bunch of pampered expats.

Hong Kong, I love you.


Not a day goes by that I don't in some way or another think of how lucky I am to be a part of this extraordinary city. Of course no one place in the world is good for everyone, otherwise we would all be fighting over the same piece of land, but for those of us who are happy here, we wish the others well and hope they find their place in the world.

Cucaracha, I couldn't have said it better myself.

Madtown,


"The entire Pearl River Delta is an environmental disaster. The "new territories" are nothing more than a suburb of shenzhen"


You've just said what is the cause, why don't you enlighten us in providing a solution to getting better air, as you've clearly stated that it's coming down from neighbouring China. It's obvious we can't up HK physically and plant it somewhere away from industry. Singapore has cleaner air because it is away from any manufacturing source. And whilst I am at it, you are directly or indirectly contributing to the source of polution as you have said you do work in Shenzhen, so what a hyprocritical statement you're making. I suppose the HK government could outlaw all privately owned cars, which would give some way to improving the air quality, but the trade off in inconveniece the entire way of life would be too much and too radical. This has been a much debated subject in the past and instead of poking at how bad HK air is, why are you not asking what's so good about HK that it's keeping you here?


Oh and btw, I am writing this outside in my Sai Kung house under a beautiful clear blue sky. So much for bad air ;-)