Ping: Anyone who has lived in Hong Kong

[AlexB]

I'm in the early stages of negotiating a job offer to live & work in Hong Kong, lokking likely at the minimum 6 months HK, 6 months England, or full time in Asia. At the moment we haven't talked about salary, and I'm guessing it'll be slightly less than what I'm on at the moment - the difference being that at the moment the furthest afield I go is Essex, this role would be visits to China, India, Bangladesh, etc... So I could be prepared to drop a little if I have to for the experience. edit: but I'm still a ways away from leaving what I'm doing at the moment - it's going very well right now.

Does anyone have any experience of living over there for any extended time? I've been to Singapore, and spent 6 months in SE Asia, and get the feeling HK will be fairly similar to Singapore?

Living expenses are supposed to be high according to cost of living comparisons I've seen on the web, yet everyone tells me it's dirt cheap - I'm guessing if you try and live like a Westerner it'll cost, but live in a more local style it'll be cheap?

Any impressions anyone has of the place, and in particular advice on accomodation would be greatly appreciated.

[Lathum]

I can't tell you much but I went there for 6 weeks in 1998 for work and loved it. Clean city, nice people and almost everyone speaks english.

[TazFTW]

The rental rates are very expensive. With a quick googling, it looks like the cheapest rents are at/near the airport (Lantau island) starting at around 10 HK$ per square foot (ex. 600 sq. ft apartment for 6,000 HK$). Living in Kowloon (mainland China part of HK) or Hong Kong island will double or triple that rate (at least) based on location (600 sq. ft apartment for 15,000-30,000+ HK$).

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I can't tell you much but I went there for 6 weeks in 1998 for work and loved it. Clean city, nice people and almost everyone speaks english.

Did you open a store out there? If so, that must have been neat. I only ever considered going into the new store openings because of the opportunity to go abroad.

[Danny]

I read this as "Ping: Anyone who has lived through King Kong"

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Did you open a store out there? If so, that must have been neat. I only ever considered going into the new store openings because of the opportunity to go abroad.

yes I did, it was very cool.

[AlexB]

Ok - thanks for the info. Asked directly about salary before got hopes up: in their from-to the 'from' was less than I'd take, but the 'to' was the number I had in mind, so that was encouraging. A month of research is in order now!