How long will you stay in HK?

A

aussiegal

Registered User
I'm curious, since most of us on this site seem to be ex-pats how long has everyone lived here and how long do you plan on staying?

We love HK but miss things we took for granted in Sydney; beautiful weather, lovely beaches, houses with gardens, non-polluted skies etc. We've only been here 5 months and plan on staying for just two years because of these things. I don't want my children to miss out on the things we had growing up and the fact that every month they (we) are coming down with a flu or other illness when we could go years without getting sick makes me feel terrible. Anyone feel the same?
 
no reason you can't have a house with a garden...you just need to move off of hk island if you want something that is reasonably priced!(ps. we're moving at the end of this month...2100', 5 bed, 4 bath, front and back garden, 2 balconies, rooftop terrace....all for the incredible price of $15,800!!!!! where, you ask? Sai kung country park!)
 
We've been here 4 years and will be here at least another two. Aussiegal, I'm like you and miss too many things from home to stay here permanently. (I'm from Seattle in the USA). there are definitely pros for HK, but also a lot of cons. I guess in two years when hubby finishes his program, we will evaluate where we'd like to be more and run with it.
 
Moved here from Sydney in 2000, only planned to stay for 2 years.
Terribly homesick for the first 12mths, then started to realise that you can have a better lifestyle here, you just need to know where to look.
After being here for 7 years, we have no intention of leaving any time soon.

If you want the lifestyle with the beaches and the garden, move to Sai Kung. It's only a 40 min drive from Central, which is half the time taken to drive from a beachside suburb in Sydney to the city.

I'm an avid Air Pollution Index watcher, and I go to the website each morning to see how bad things are. Interestingly, the last month, the readings have been lower here than in Sydney.
My husband and I wonder if Beijing has shut down some factories or something in the lead up to the anniversary celebrations?

Will be curious to see what happens now that the worlds eyes aren't on HK any longer.
 
Matty - I've seen the air pollution indexes too and I just don't believe them. Look out your window? Look in the ocean? They just don't compare to Sydney, whatever the scientists might try to tell us. Commonsense has to prevail !

To the original question...I came here from Sydney in 1998 on a one year work contract. A husband, two children and a Hong Kong flat later...still here. Plan to stay here until my oldest is in high school, we'd like her to go to high school in Perth where my husband is from. So about 8'ish more years.

I very much enjoy life in Hong Kong. I've never lived in Perth before and am not looking forward to start all over again and have to make new friends.
 
We've been here almost a year now. And we've had to recently evaluate our quality of life here. It does not compare to what we had in Sydney. It's hard coz we lived in one of the loveliest suburbs in Sydney... Neutral Bay... Balmoral Beach was round the corner, so was Taronga Zoo... my little bub's early playgrounds. Even when we lived in Melbourne, we lived in South Yarra.

I guess it all depends on what you have to compare it to back home. We've decided to give HK another six months and then conduct another evaluation to see if it's worth staying here.

I understand what you mean Aussiegal. I feel for my bub and feel a tinge of guilt here and there when i think about how i took him away from the comforts we were surrounded with in Sydney.

Cara has a good point though... moving away from HK city helps. That's why we reside out here in the boondocks. Just to get that glimmer of normalcy we had at home... mostly the space.
 
Jane, although we came from Sydney both my husband and I grew up in Perth. I know what you mean when you say you don't want to go through the whole process of starting again. Perth is a great city however although it does take some getting to know. It's very relaxed, a bit slow but therein lies its charm. You'll be fine meeting people and settling in, they're pretty friendly.

Spockey, we came from Paddington so feel the same way as you do. The transition is hard when you come from a great suburb and have had a nice easy life where you could go for walks without trying to avoid being hit by cars because there are no sidewalks! We used to walk to Ruschcutter's Bay every day but here we have no equivalent. Our children are young, 17 mths and 4 weeks but we'll definitely be going back to school them there.

Matty, I read somewhere that the way air pollution is measured in Hong Kong and the Mainland grossly underestimates the pollution and is not recognised internationally as being accurate. The main thing I have to go on however is how i feel whenever i go into Central - which is pretty bad. I can feel the pollution in my throat and I feel bad for my husband who has to breathe it in every day. We live Southside so it's not too bad out here.

Anyway, it's interesting hearing everyone's point of view. I can completely understand how you fall in love with this place. It has a lot going for it. Maybe it's just a case of not being able to ever better the place you call 'home'.
 
I guess it also depends what stage of life you are at. I have two preschoolers and felt very stuck in a rut (and a bit trapped) in New Zealand - depsite having a great house in a lovely suburb. Coming to Hong Kong has given me a whole new lease on life as there is so much to do here and a whole lot of new friends to make. I do feel guilty that my sons mostly get to see their grandparents on Skype and the outdoor life was so great in NZ BUT I also feel they have an incredible opportunity to be amongst another culture and have experiences they could not have at home. I am hoping this journey we are on as a family will ensure they grow up knowing the world has no boundries and that they can feel at home anywhere in the world.

In saying that, we will probably only be here for two more years (been here one) as hubby's work will take us elsewhere. Whatever you do or however you feel make sure you take advantage of the opportunity Hong Kong gives you. We are on the door step of Aisa here.
 
Fee - you go girl, good on you.

Aussiegal - thanks for the Perth hints. My husband is 'from' Perth but hasn't lived there since he joined the airforce at 17 and has no friends left there ! We will both be starting from scratch. I just couldn't live in Sydney again. Loved it when I lived there. Visit now and hate it. I think it is mostly the traffic/transport system. It is ok if all your friends and family live in one area (eg. lower north shore, eastern suburbs, etc.), but awful if you want to travel and 'god forbid' want to visit someone in the western suburbs.
 
I think there are plenty of expats in HK for whom HK is home.
I came to HK aged 11 (after a childhood spend overseas in other countries) and apart from a few years at Uni in the UK have not left HK since then and HK to me is 'home.' My family are here which I think makes a difference, so my son has at least one grandparent and his uncles here.

Leaving HK to me is leaving 'home,'- even going to the UK (where I am originally from) would be a huge upheaveal, culture shock etc.

However everytime we visit my husbands home country (he has only been in HK four years and still can't bring himself to call it 'home,') I do wonder sometimes if my son is missing out on having an 'outdoor life.' We live in DB and so there are opportunities for my son outside but it's still all a bit 'Hk' and man made; whereas in my husbands home country the outdoor life is fantastic and the whole country is so much more geared towards children and families etc.
I think also education wise there is a real lack of choice in HK.
But it would mean giving up financial benefits and future career opportunities- so it's trying to strike a balance between the two.

HK is definetly home however!
 
Don't think for a second that i am defending HK pollution.
It's just strange that the indexes dropped around the 10th anniversary and are now heading back up again.

You've got to admit, the last few weeks have been crystal clear( when not raining). We have a view from our apartment and it's eay to compare the daily changes.
The index is usually up around 80, and June was down around 14 in Central!
As soon as the anniversary passed it has started heading back up.

What did the govt do? Is this a conincidence, or did China Light and Power stop burning coal for a few weeks?
Why can't the Govt do more the rest of the time.?
 
Hi Matty- agree pollution in HK is shocking but that there has been a diff. recently.

I know that there have been concerns from the intl. community about the horrendous pollution in Beijing and concerns about the athletes who will be there for the 2008 Olympics- so the Chinese govt. has introduced a number of plans to cut the pollution-

a). Reducing the number of cars on the rd, at the moment they are restricting the number of official cars that can be on the rd at any one time and they are considering plans to impose similar restrictions on private cars.
b). I believe they have also relocated a lot of factories etc. out of Beijing and its surrounding areas in the lead up to the Olympics, or ordered them to close!!!!

I'm not sure if measures to reduced pollution in Beijing would have an impact on us here......maybe not....
 
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