Hong Kong: Why do we live here?

[Al E. Vator]

.....er, thats because the acid rain corrodes bbq implements in 5 minutes (and Batmans' undies too apparently).

[roboratski]

blueside

blusidedown,why would you want to leave canada for HK?looks like a very beautiful place even on postcards and travel mags.

[rodney rude]

Hot Dog,
Sory dude, waaaay wrong. I live in the Sai Kung country park. Every Monday morning or after every public holiday every single BBQ area is awash with an enormous amount of litter. The culture is not about cleaning up after yourself - kids are not taught it as what should be done. The streetsweepers will do it.
Comne have a look at about 7am on a Monday - it will open your eyes. And hats off to the streetsweepers for the great job they do cleaning up after Hong Kong's pigs.

[throw a dyce]

Rule 3,
Post deleted.Can't be aed anymore.Why don't you slag me? Out in the Sandpit now eh? Can't get a job anywhere else?

[Rule3]

misunderstanding

Post Deleted. Sorry if you misunderstood the Question. I read all your posts and replies with interest and agree with you 100% about HK. Enjoy the golf and the clean air.

[throw a dyce]

Rule3
Check PMs.

[Goonybird]

Hotdog,

FYI, If you are concerened about your anonymity you shouldn't post photos from your personal photobucket album. It's easy to follow the link to your entire album.
I'm not a regular on here so I don't know if you are concerned with this or not, just thought I'd mention it.

[HotDog]

Thanks Goonybird but I'm not particularly concerned about a breach of my anonymity.

[priapism]

I was visiting my brother in Yuen Long last year and was waiting for him in the foyer of the huge yum cha place there.(the Kar Ching??) I had just picked up about 200 photo prints that I had taken in Melbourne and had printed at the local Kodak shops. Among these photos were some great shots of half a dozen hot air balloons that grace the sky at low level over my house occasionally and some photos from the surf beach at Lorne. There were a couple of local elderly China's waiting as well and they couldn't help but look on as I flipped through my prints. I can't speak Cantonese and they couldn't speak English , but I did my best to explain what the photo's were about. Pretty soon I had an appreciating audience of locals who were also waiting and they were pointing at my balloon and beach shots and seemed impressed indeed .

My brother eventually arrived and laughed when he saw what was going on.
He speaks very good Cantonese and I told him that they were really into the balloons. He listened in and told me it wasn't the balloons and beach they were impressed with it was the clear, blue cloudless skies!

The things we take for granted!


There is surprisingly good hiking in Honkers. I love the place to visit and could live there for a short term but I would miss the clean air. Even in Yuen Long it is pretty bad. I made the mistake of attempting a run there one morning. I've never had asthma but I really did feel quite tight in the chest and had to stop.

[Buttie Box]

Have a look at page 4 of The Standard today (Monday 19th Nov). American investment guru Jim Rogers states that the high level of air pollution has forced him to go to Singapore. "Expatriates in Hong Kong...have repeatedly called on the government to make cleaner air a priority..." "Air pollution costs the city about HK$ 21.2 billion a year in hospital admissions..."

Looking out the window, it must be about 4000m if you're lucky. You can taste the air.

BB

[Lowkoon]

Used to freak when we could smell hkg at 5,000' on descent, then was alarmed when we could smell it at 8000', and so on. A new personal record for me, smelt it at fl190 over siera. That distinctive sulphur chlorine aroma that lets you know you are home! At least the flight attendants have stopped reporting it as smoke in the cabin... For now...

So good to see Hu giving a speech on the environment in Singapore this week. Isnt that going to be as well received as a speech by Bush on his road map to peace in the middle east?

Maybe the congress in Bali will see some action? Not holding my breath, but wish I could, so I dont have to breathe this sh1te!

[BScaler]

SCMP Pollution Letter

People don't generally move to Hong Kong for the fresh air - there are usually career drivers behind the move here, but the question really has to be 'How much is living in this polluted environment really worth in dollar terms?', or put another way 'Is the boost in my career by taking a job here worth exposing myself to the environment in Hong Kong?'.

It is a hard question to answer, particularly if you are inflicting the polluted environment here in Hong Kong on your family as well.

Here is a Letter to the Editor that appeared in the SCMP on Thursday November 2007 that gives one perspective. It is entitled

'Living in heavily polluted HK has been bitter-sweet experience'
I am an Australian who has been living here for only 12 months and while I have enjoyed my time, I can hardly say Hong Kong has been a model city to be envied by the rest of the world.
For the first time in my 30 years on this planet I have worried every day about what my living conditions are doing to my body - and what the long-term effects will be, even after I return to a clean environment.
You can't drink the tap water, or eat fish caught locally, although you probably do this unwittingly. You can't dine out with confidence until you've had your hepatitis shots and you can't avoid MSG.
How can anyone relax at a local restaurant knowing that the vegetables have been grown in mainland soil, soaking up chemicals and heavy metals from one of its abused waterways, 90 per cent of which are polluted?
I now know when I come home from a walk outside, I am not getting sick, my throat simply hurts from the pollution. My newly acquired persistent cough is a symptom of being poisoned by industrial diesel fumes and the fact that I am getting pimples for the first time in my life in my thirties is a testament to the disgusting environmental conditions.
I have to apologise to my overseas visitors for the smells emanating from the sewers, for the blasts of diesel fumes on the Star Ferry, for the pointless trip to The Peak to see the smog, for the dead and bloated fish on the rubbish tip-style waterfronts of the 'beautiful' outlying islands and for avoiding most of the city's local eateries unless my guests have been vaccinated.
Before I arrived in Hong Kong, I was planning on starting a family. Now I'm so worried about what only 12 months in Hong Kong has done to my health I have booked a raft of tests for when I get home, including those for detecting high levels of mercury and other heavy metals. This would never have been a concern back home. Living in Hong Kong has been a bitters-weet experience.

The inescapable inference from this letter is that one would have to think hard before leaving a place where you are forced to breathe clean air and live in a large house, and swap it for this polluted environment in Hong Kong in order to make a little more money, or further your career.

This is particularly so in our seniority-driven occupation where it is not always so easy to move sideways into a comparable position in another airline. Almost invariably a demotion is required in order to move between airlines. You could find yourself, having invested some time here, trapped in an environment you and your family are unhappy with, but unable to move away without taking a considerable hit in terms of career progression.

What price clean air, fresh food, and healthy lifestyle?

[7478]

Mr Trevor, i don't quite get this.
Care to explain further?
congrats for moving out in 2 months.

Quoted:

Here's the problem.

To the Chinese (especially HK Chinese)

Favourite sport - money
Favourite music - money
Favourite pass time - money
favourite tele show - money
preferred political system - money
favourite holiday - money
favourite religion - money
favourite conversation topic - money
favourite night out - money
favourite band - money
favourite actor - money
favourite clothes - money
favourite pets - money
favourite color - BROWN, because when the sky is brown, that means.................................you guessed it

[Trevor the lover]

Pretty simple - thats all they think about and all they care about!

[EXEZY]

I would say 7478 is a bit miffed as I would guess he's a local cadet training in Adelaide.

[7478]

Trevor the loverPretty simple - thats all they think about and all they care about!


No offense to other expats.

But from which corner of the world do u come from? i find you really rude, are u exceptional or a reflection of what the population of your hometown is like?

i think it's people like YOU who are never satisfied with the money you're paid!!! Some of YOU really like to grumble about money.

hope i won't bump into you in the flight deck for the next 2 months before u disappear.

[leopold bloom]

Trevor and money

A very ironic post as the only reason you Gweilos are in Hong Kong is for the money. You quite obviously don't know any HK Chinese very well or you wouldn't post such tripe. Look at the title of the thread again, money is the answer,but not for the natives.

[Canuckian]

Interesting perspective

From another hong kong forum:

Hey geminijets,
I moved myself and my family from North America to Hong Kong 2 years ago to work for a large Asian carrier based in Hong Kong.
For me, the city has been a real mix of ups and downs. Be prepared to do a little more work just to get the basic things in life, and a whole lot of paperwork and old English bureaucracy to get the major things done. The public transport infrastructure in Hong Kong is I believe second to none in the world so it is quite possible to commute to the airport as required for work. However the basic theme seems to be that once you've had enough of someone coughing up phlegm in your ear you may opt for taxis or a personal vehicle. We do just fine on the bus and MTR and will most likely stay that way.
Being situated in this part of the world is definitely a plus. All those beautiful places to visit are on your doorstep and significantly cheaper and less time consuming to visit than from Europe or NA.
The main thing you'll hear over and over again when living here is the environment. What the Chinese are doing to their air and water systems is in a word shocking. They attempt to justify it by saying "the country is modernizing; the west did it now it's our turn". The unfortunate reality is that only a relatively small portion of the Chinese are on this so called wave of modernization leaving the vast majority of peasants behind to live and work in the world’s most polluted areas. Another consideration is that when western countries modernized they had populations to support equivalent to a drop in the bucket as far as china's concerned. The current political/business system in China is very contagious in the region and unfortunately is being represented more and more everyday in Hong Kong. The political economic powers in the region are likened only to a supreme being, they giveth and taketh away(while of course trying to make you think you really did or didn't want it anyway). When the issue of air pollution rears its ugly head the Beijing appointed administration points the finger at the coal power stations and manufacturing plants on mainland Chinese soil. They claim that it is out of the hands and we need to focus on the pollution emitted from Hong Kong. Now this is all fine and dandy however with a slight wind shift in direction and velocity you'll quickly note the origin of most of the pollution. The ironic thing is the majority of the damaging plants and factories in the region are owned and operated by Hong Konger's who have more than enough money and resources to purchase the existing technologies to clean it up. Personally I think they should be publicly identified as the perpetrators of the current mess. China and Hong Kong are not the only ones to blame in this environmental catastrophe. If western countries stop opening dollar stores on every corner then perhaps the manufacturing in the region would be forced to slow. To see for yourself please look at the Environmental Protection Dept website (http://www.epd-asg.gov.hk/eindex.php). Keep in mind that when a large city the size of Toronto which is subject to smoggy and humid condition in the summer have RSP reading upwards of 30 they issue public health advisories. You’ll note that HK is rarely if ever below 30.
When you move your family to the other side of the globe you expect something in return. A contract is signed and shortly thereafter the airline slowly begins to change and whittle away the initial terms and conditions of the agreement. After a short time your career outlook, compensation, benefits and mental status are a darn sight different than when you signed on. There are very few and I mean very few labor laws on Hong Kong so you will have no chance at defending yourself in the courts against the economic beast. Unions are also illegal and unrecognized. The current pay status with the major carriers in HK has fallen behind some European carriers and when you factor in the exchange rate they are well behind some. Don't expect to have 24 days off a month and take home $100,000 as some insightful individuals have previously mentioned. Besides I highly doubt they want the fellow at the pointy end collecting food stamps when something goes wrong and he has 400 pax and a mucho $$$ airplane to protect.
The long and short of this whole rant is that Hong Kong definitely has something to offer but nothing comes easily so be prepared to make a trade off. If you go ahead with the move do it with your eyes wide open. Take health, environment, currency exchange, industrial relations, possibilities to move back home, living expenses and basic lifestyle into account. Most of all good luck!

[A. Le Rhone]

If you think the atmosphere is only of miniscule thickness (compared to the vastness of space) what the hell are we doing pumping all that crap into the air? Just waiting for a breeze to blow it away only takes it somewhere else.

Some of the most ardent 'greenies' are current and ex-Astronauts. They have seen what a delicate gem our planet is. That people are willing to destroy that for the almighty $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ beggars belief.

Western countries leave much to be desired but make no mistake, the living habits of Hong Kong and Mainland citizens are at the very forefront of global destruction.

NO2 is not beneficial to your child's lungs.

[A. Le Rhone]

For a non-SCMP understanding of how bad it is check out the link below.

The SCMP has of course their own special 'sanitised' view of pollution, so as no to offend Mr Tsang of course, who won't offend the HK businessmen-pigs with their belching unfiltered Guandong factories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pollution_in_Hong_Kong