Anyone know much about the Goldcoast?

S

sophwillsmum

Registered User
Hi,
We will be moving to HK in June with our two children nearly six and two and a half. As my daughter will be attending the Australian international school, we would prefer to live on the Kowloon side. I have seen advertisments for the Goldcoast which looks really attractive and relatively cheap. I am wondering what the catch is. Does it have many amenities such as shops, restaurants and playgroups etc? Would we be dependent on a car?
I would greatly appreciate any advice,
Sally.
 
The Goldcoast is a nice place (have only visited though) but it is not on the train network - you will either have to catch a bus, take a taxi, or drive to the nearest station (approx 15-20 minutes). If you are wanting somewhere that is more convenient for public transport look at Tsuen Wan or Tuen Mun (out the same way as Goldcoast but not as 'resortish') or maybe somewhere on the KCR East rail - eg Tai Po (great place, nice outlooks over mountains or sea, reasonable rent) I am a bit biased though because I live there! I do know of several kids who go to the AIS who live in Tai Po but it is still a bit of a comute - as it will be from anywhere but Kowloon Tong or it's surrounding neighbourhoods
 
Gold Coast has a great pool, the beach, playgrounds, gardens, tennis courts, greenspace, a gym (not that nice though). There are a few restaurants in the plaza as well as a grocery store (Welcome), coffee shop and some other basic ammenities.

Activities for little kids in the area have gotten better since we first moved here. There is a free playgroup in the clubhouse twice a week (nonstructured free-play), Miss Janes playgroup (structures), Just Juniors music, movement and baby groups. Music lessons are offered in the plaza and in Tuen Mun there is Jing Jing's playgroup as well as a new letterland playgroup. For other kids activities we generally end up downtown.

We go to Tuen Mun pretty frequently. There is a large mall there, a market, the library etc. Personally, there's no way I'd live in Tuen Mun over Gold Coast. It is only a 10 minute bus ride to Tuen Mun or a $25 cab ride. The facilities in Gold Coast are much nicer than anything in Tuen Mun.

We've been in Gold Coast for one year and transportation isn't too bad. It takes about 30-40 minutes to get down town on the 962 bus.

From the Gold Coast Plaza you can catch a schedualed shuttle bus that travels directly to TST (35 minutes), Tsing Yi (30 minutes), or Tsuen Wan (25 minutes). (You can catch the MTR at Tsing Yi or Tsuen Wan)

From the Gold Coast clubhouse there are resident shuttle bussed that run to the airport and Tsuen Wan throughout the day, an early morning bus to TST, and morning/evening commuter bused to Central/Wanchi.

We managed for a year without a car and have only just bought one recently. The shuttle busses are really convienient, but I sometimes find managing a 1 and 3 year old on the bus myself a bit of a handful (thus the car purchase).

I don't know about the Austrailian International School (AIS)specifiaclly, but I know many of the other schools in Kowloon Tong do offer bus service from Gold Coast. You may want to contact AIS directly about service, price and travel time.

Anyways, hope that helps!
 
Thanks so much for your knowledge Erin. It is so hard trying to work out where to live when you are sitting in another country just looking at internet pictures. We just like the look of the area as we have always lived on the beach here in Sydney and so I think it would be less unsettling for the kids. Secondly, it looks very cheap for what you get. On the goldcoast website, it mentions that they have the largest expat population in Hk. I find that hard to believe as no one on these websites seems to know much about it. What would you say?
 
It really is hard to be making these decisions through the internet alone. If you have a chance to look at some different areas before your move I'd really encourage that.

I'm be skeptical that Gold Coast has the largest expat population in HK. With that said we like the mix here (personal choice of course). We didn't want to live somewhere that was majoraty expat, but at the same time we wanted to make sure there were enough expats around where we didn't feel isolated. If I had to guess, I'd say maybe 30% expats in Gold Coast. However, when we go to Tuen Mun, we don't see very many Westerners and not very many people speak English.

Gold Coast (and many other areas) have serviced apartments. You could consider staying in a serviced appartment until you make your decision.
 
This may be a little late... but... may be handy.

I live at the GC with my hubby and our almost year old bubba. I teach near Kowloon Tong where the Australian International is. It takes me an hour to get there from the GC. I don't know what time your child's session will begin but there is a young boy who takes the 7.05 GC shuttle bus to the Tsuen Wan train station to get to the AIS.

The GC reminds us of the abundant space we miss having moved from Oz... mind you, Neutral Bay where we were in Sydney, isn't that spacious :-) But it's wonderful to see the kids here ride their bikes on the streets without having to worry about traffic, on weekends and some weekdays, the kids around here play cricket or soccer on the field, bubs and mums are aplenty and so are the toddlers. Twice a week there is a free play playgroup that is free organised by the GC club house. On top of the free playgroup, there are structured playgroups (fee-payable) that are organised by Just Juniors and another organisation twice/thrice a week.

As for the number of expats, it's a good balance of locals, mainland expats and all other overseas expats.

We've had the option of moving this year but have decided to stay on account of the rent prices we pay in comparison to the space that we get at the GC and other parts of HK and for the fact that it's like living a village here. We know a good number of Aussies here who keep an eye our for our little man while he is in the care of a DH. Doesn't provide the DH here room to misbehave. But mostly, it's a very idyllic lifestyle compared to many parts of HK.

Good Luck with your move! Let me know if you want to have a look at our apartment or something before you make that decision when you are here. And yes, they do lease out from a week to a couple of months for a serviced apartment while you decide whether or not you like the ambience here.
 
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