For those of you who do not know me, my name is Colin Chung. I was born in Victoria, BC but was raised in Hong Kong. Literally, Hong Kong means "fragrant harbour". Hong Kong is a prosperous city, with lots of skyscrapers and business activities as well as wonderful restaurants. It is about 25% bigger than the City of Calgary but houses a whooping 7 million people! It is also known as the shoppers paradise, as the tourists are always delighted to find nice clothes, top quality merchandizes at a cheaper price than it is in Canada. Hong Kong is a competitive marketplace and business may not survive with low quality and overly-priced products.
View from the top of The Peak - picture belongs to Colin Chung
Hong Kong used to be a British colony, until July 1 1997 when the British 'handover' Hong Kong back to China. This ended the 99-year lease of the British administration on Hong Kong. Under the British law, Hong Kong was able to flourish as a center for far-east international trade. Lots of the streets in Hong Kong are named after the former Hong Kong governors or the British Prime Ministers, such as Salisbury Road. The harbour is called the Victoria Harbour, which is named after the Queen Victoria.
View from Central, the business district in Hong Kong - Picture belongs to me
Hong Kong has a highly developed and sophisticated transport network. Over 90% of the daily journeys are on public transport, making it the highest rate in the world. In Hong Kong, most of the people would take public transit rather than drive. The gasoline price in Hong Kong is twice as much as in Canada. Also, the car insurance in Hong Kong is sky high. Last but not least, Hong Kong is a small city with lots of cars on the road. There are many traffic jams daily and therefore I normally would not recommend driving in the urban areas in Hong Kong.
From stock.xchng. Picture belongs to Daniel Altherr
In Hong Kong, almost everyone uses a so-called "Octopus Card." It is a smart electronic payment system introduced in 1997. In comparison, the Calgary Transit is trying to implement a somewhat similar system 15 years later, which is way behind. The octopus card allows users to put money into their cards. Payments are not only limited to public transportation, but also in restaurants, theaters, supermarkets, parking meters and even vending machines. It shortens each transaction and makes urban life a lot easier and efficient. I like using my octopus card, as I do not need to go to bank machines to withdraw regularly. One I put funds into my octopus card, I could pay for almost all my daily needs. Some of you may concern of the possibility of fraud. Recently a Hong Kong family was arrested over fraud, as they stole the octopus card machine and added $55,000 over 61 octopus cards. Therefore, the security of the octopus card is sometimes in question. However, in general, octopus card system has been pretty reliable.
The majority of the Hong Kong citizens live in apartments. Only the billionaires could afford to own single family homes in Hong Kong. Many people are living in deplorable conditions while some rich and famous could afford to live at The Peak with panoramic harbour views. According to the Gini coefficient, a measure of inequlity in distribution of income, Hong Kong has a score of 0.53. It is the highest among all Asia countries. It may seen to be a cruel city, as 'the rich gets richer and poor gets poorer.'
This is where my family lives. Picture belongs to me
The picture above shows where my family lives. It is called Tai Koo Shing, the largest private housing estate in Hong Kong. Tai Koo used to be a dockyard until the 1970s, when the owners decided to construct the biggest private housing project in Hong Kong. Most of these apartment units have less than 1000 square feet and they are usually about 30-stories high. There is a shopping mall attached to the estate, which houses supermarkets as well as international brand names boutiques, restaurants. Train and bus stops are within walking distances, which makes it convenient to live there.
Overall, Hong Kong is a modern metropolitan with one of the world's best transport system. It houses some of the best restaurants and best shopping experience in the world. However, Hong Kong is densely populated and has a high income disparity. It is a complete '180' in comparison to living in Canada. Above all, I am proud to have lived in both Hong Kong and Canada for an extended period of time.
Personally, I love Hong Kong since most of my friends have a really positive evaluation on this city, especially the food and shopping, and also it’s a famous metropolitan city. I’m really curious about Hong Kong because of its high rate. How could the poor people survival there? Or the H.K government supports them or offers them some welfare services? Because I know in China mainland, the government is weak at helping the poor and disabled which is a huge social issue.
ReplyDeleteShirley, Hong Kong has a social welfare system. That is why it attracts people from the Mainland to come and take advantage of it. Things such as fake marriages, having their babies born in HK hospital wards etc. That creates a lot of tension between Hong Kong locals and people from Mainland. In HK, the welfare money is usually not enough for a person to rent a decent place to live. He/she usually has to rent a bed in the urban areas that is like 50 square feet. As I mentioned in my article, Hong Kong has way too many people cramped in such a small space. The housing prices is ridiculous high and is ranked near the highest in the world. $800,000 CDN will probably get you a decent house in Calgary, but it will only buy you a 800 sq ft apartment in Hong Kong. The minimum wage is a new policy in Hong Kong, which is way behind when comparing to some major cities in Mainland China. It is about $3 CDN which is at least 50% below the Canadian minimum wage. Even the food and traveling cost is at least 30% as it is in Canada, people in Hong Kong spend most of their wages on housing. They make have to spend their lifetime (or even beyond) to repay their mortgages! I know I do not like to sugarcoat things but it is not pretty!
ReplyDeleteHere is a link about Hong Kong slamming the door on pregnant Chinese from Mainland.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/17/us-hongkong-china-babies-idUSBRE83G0SX20120417