Living in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a metropolitan city known as the “Pearl of the Orient”. With her prosperous development, many expatriates have found new possibilities for their careers here in Hong Kong. Some have found their lives transformed by this lovely city that they have made it their life-long home.

Accommodation
Residential areas in Hong Kong are clean and tidy. They are basically well-connected by public transportation and with shops and restaurants nearby. You can travel back and forth most of the places in Hong Kong within 15-60 minutes. Rent varies depending on the living district and size of the apartment.

Transportation
Hong Kong claims one of the world’s safest, most efficient and frequent public transport systems and a convenient payment method in the form of the Octopus Card. There are plenty of ways to get around Hong Kong, whether it’s by taxi, ferry, rail, bus or tram.

Healthcare Hong Kong has developed a healthcare system of high efficiency and good quality providing accessible and affordable healthcare to the population. It consists of public and private hospitals, general out-patient and specialist clinics, and Chinese medicine practices. Most of the public hospitals provide a full range of accident and emergency medical services 24 hours a day.

Geography & Climate
Located at the south-eastern tip of China, Hong Kong covers Hong Kong Island, Lantau Island, the Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories, including 262 outlying islands. Between Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula lies Victoria Harbour, one of the world’s most renowned deep-water habours.
Hong Kong has a sub-tropical climate with distinct seasons, with temperatures dropping below 10 degrees Celsius in winter and exceeding 31 degree Celsius in summer. It is warm, sunny and dry in autumn, cool and dry in winter, warm and humid in spring, and hot and rainy in summer.

Language & Communications
It’s not hard to stay in touch when in Hong Kong, one of the world’s most “connected” cities. Most of the world’s mobile telecommunication systems operate in Hong Kong. Also, free Wi-Fi services are widespread across the city in locations such as major tourist attractions, shopping malls, parks, and gardens, visitor centres, sports venues, museums, ferry terminals, government buildings, etc. You can also find Wi-Fi hotspots at most public transport areas.
Chinese and English are the official languages of Hong Kong. Cantonese, a dialect of Mainland China, is spoken by 88% of people in Hong Kong. As international hubs in different industries, English is widely used in the Government and by the legal, professional and business sectors.
All official signs and public transport announcements, as well as most menus, are bilingual. You can expect to encounter minimal problems communicating in English as most taxi drivers, salespeople, tourism industry employees and police have reached competent levels of the language. In fact, many locals even pepper their Chinese speech with English words and phrases.

Shopping and Eating
Hong Kong is known as a “Shopping Paradise” with high quality in terms of hygiene, quality of products and variety at reasonable prices. In Hong Kong, you always find supermarkets or convenience stores nearby. The wet markets are another option for live fish, seafood and chicken as well as freshly butchered meat. Online grocery shopping becomes popular and it is useful to do bulk orders online for household essentials.
In this multi-cultural city, you can find different varieties of food to satisfy your palate. You may check with the Michelin Guide for the restaurants awarded Michelin star, from high-end to street stall.

Tax
Hong Kong has low taxes and a simple taxation system. The salaries tax is calculated at a progressive rate with standard maximum rate of 15%. There is no VAT or GST in Hong Kong.
For more information about Hong Kong, you are welcome to visit the following websites:
http://www.hkwelcomesu.gov.hk/eng/working.html
http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/index.jsp