Cathay was the "dream" job of my younger days in the early 90's(I am sure, as SO that dream would have been smashed even back then very fast, but hey, dreams of boys), thanks god(I must say) terms changed pretty fast and Cathay was not very interesting anymore for experienced pilots(at least for most of us).
Hong Kong itself is a nice city for a week or so during layover but living in that mess is a different story. Greener pastures nowadays are somewhere else, even the location may be significantly worse then HK.
Just another company that went from nice to worse due to greedy owners.