Taxes
Krashman - The IRD (Inland revenue department) will take your pay for the first year and essentially double it to project your earnings for the next year. You will be taxed at full rate for the first year and then at about 90% for the second year I believe (never worked it out) so essentially you are paying forward dated tax. The sucky part is when you get that first tax bill, because it's huge and you haven't earned much (especially as a CEP when you have crazy cost of living expenses). You can get a cheap tax loan, but you never get ahead if you do this I found. The double taxing continues throughout your career and the only benefit comes in your last year of earning in Hong Kong. Because essentially the provisional tax cancels out that year and you pay nothing. It's a way for the IRD to have tax in hand and so expats can't just skip town without paying, although some do which is morally suspect and I won't go into the mechanism for that here.
Essentially, you are always paying double tax. Sounds weird but it's true. In general though, the HK tax system is excellent. Very simple and at a lower rate than pretty much anywhere else in the developed world.