Could someone who has visited or lived in Hong Kong, kindly post their impressions about living there, the cost of living, and their tax regime? Please feel free to make a brief list of pros and cons, subjective as they may be. thanks in advance guys!
Google for expat forums on hong kong...you'll find volumes of information on living there......expensive beyond belief will be a recurring theme I think...
Things might well have changed now, but when I was looking at a job there many moons ago, the most expensive thing was finding a place to live - apartments were tiny & uuber pricey. However this expense was partly compensated for in the quoted salary. Can't remember the details on the tax regime, but I don't recollect it being any worse than the UK's. Mass transit was cheap - I was recommended not to bother with a car. Food seemed pretty reasonable, too. When I was researching it, I went down to the HK tourist office in London - they were pretty helpful answering my questions.
I lived there for 4 months and it was fun, food was very cheap as was drinks (as long as you didn't go to the tourist areas). The transport system works and is fairly cheap, it's recommended you get an octopus card as it will save you money and you don't have to fiddle with small change (buses sometimes charge odd amounts and don't give change, so if the fare is $6.50 and you only have $10 then tough.) Living out there can be cheap if you do live out there for a long time and get a year or two contract and live outside Kowloon or the main part of Hong Kong Island. Short term apartments are small, expensive and most lack anything more then a kettle, although by going to the far east of Hong Kong Island I managed to get a reasonable short term apartment (put it this way the large apartment I am renting in Saitama, Japan, 30 minutes away from Tokyo which has more facilities, is bigger and nicer is half the cost of what my HK apartment cost me). Oh it's recommended you don't drink the water as it's chemically clean but tastes musty, but bottled water is cheap. Hong Kong is quite tropical and is hot and humid in summer so be prepared to sweat a lot even if you go outside for 2 minutes... As for tax, couldn't tell you as I technically live in the Isle of Man so didn't pay HK tax.
thanks for the information guys, I m looking into it! PS: if someone knows the best way to legally evade paying any/high taxes then please drop me a message or post your submissions here!=) last I checked, hong kong had two distinct taxing regimes to choose from, but I m not certain on the benefits of each..
There are several ways to avoid paying high taxes but it depend on what country you are from and if you can work as a contractor rather then an employee. Never been to the Isle of Man but it's a great place to have an address.
No it wasn't, food was a lot cheaper, going out was cheap, getting around was cheap, buying chinese brand goods was cheap. Just living in places was expensive.
From what I've heard from Expats that lived there (and I know plenty) rent is expensive, but everything else is human... way less than a place like Tokyo (or even Seoul at this point due to the strong Won). Honkers doesn't even make this list, but neither does Seoul which is odd. Perhaps this list is against the GBP, which wouldn't make Seoul painful in the least. Against the USD is another story. This list has it just under Tokyo at #4, but with no index so it's hard to get an idea of precision. Remember that MOST lists you find online are geared towards real expats... amongst expat talk, those are people that are sent to another nation by their company, and are on an expat package. Their lifestyle would differ greatly compared to any of the Japanese living members here. Most of those guys would live in a $10k/mo apartment, and take a cab both ways to work ($40-$50 a day). Obviously a list geared at those people might not be of use to you. Back to Honkers: Air quality is apparently the worst on the planet from what I've read, and of course, you're right next to China who are always finding new ways to completely fuck up the region (and recently planet).
I went to Hong Kong over the summer and i cant wait till i can aford/have a job that would allow me to live there.... thats the one thing i want right now.
I am from Hong Kong and am living there right now. If there is anything you wanna know, just ask ;-) I hope I can help.
