Here are the most amazing facts about living in Hong Kong!
9 - Numbers You Need to know
We all know that the number 13 is considered an unlucky number pretty much everywhere in
the western world.
Certain hotels omit the 13th floor or number 13 rooms.
If you're planning a holiday to Hong Kong, don't be surprised if you find your hotel
not having a floor containing the number four.
The word four sounds very similar to the word "de@th" in Chinese.
Chinese culture is filled with superstition and this is one number that they don’t mess
with whatsoever.
It’s considered such an unlucky number, that a casino in Las Vegas had to rename its
casino almost as soon as its name was changed.
The Linq on the strip used to be called the Quad from 2012 to 2014, and it alienated superstitious
Asian gamblers, forcing Caesars entertainment to do a quick rebranding after only having
renamed the property in 2012.
C’mon, all the marketing department for Caesars had to do was just ask one person
that grew up in Asia whether a name such as The Quad would have been okay or not!
On the other hand, the numbers zero, six, eight and nine are considered to have very
auspicious meanings, because those numbers in Chinese sound similar to words that have
positive meanings.
The number 8 is probably the luckiest number out there, and there are a ton of associations
with 8.
8 - Diverse landscape
Hong Kong is extremely diverse in many ways, but geographically speaking, it’s as diverse
as any city out there.
When someone thinks of Hong Kong, they probably immediately think of concrete jungles, super
dense areas, and skyscrapers.
All that is definitely true.
With around 300 skyscrapers, Hong Kong has THE most skyscrapers in the world, more than
double that of its closest rival New York City!
It also has the most high-rise buildings in the world, with 8,000 buildings having more
than 14 floors, which is almost double that of New York City again.
However, it should be noted that overall, the vast majority of Hong Kong, approximately
3/4th of Hong Kong to be more specific, is actually greenery that’s mostly uninhabited.
Hong Kong contains 24 country parks, reservoirs, and scenic hills.
Lantau Island, for example, famous for housing the the bronze Buddha statue, the Tian Tan,
is the biggest island in Hong Kong.
The Island contains a population of only roughly 45,000 residents, compared with the 1.4 million
people crammed onto Hong Kong Island.
7 - Helpers all over
There are an estimated 320,000 domestic workers referred to as helpers living in Hong Kong.
These helpers are basically live-in housekeepers and nannies who are mostly from the Philippines
and Indonesia.
Each Sunday, helpers congregate and use the day as an opportunity to go to church, socialise,
and generally enjoy life by pretty much taking over much of the public areas around Hong
Kong.
They’ll congregate and make what’s best described as cardboard fortresses where they
socialize among themselves.
Domestic helpers typically live with their employers, but a small minority of them live
in dorm style housing with other helpers.
Most helpers work long hours, and there are reports of helpers who work up to 18 hours
per day.
The low pay and long hours is considered by some to be human rights abuse.
Domestic helpers are generally paid around forty three hundred hong kong dollar per month,
which is around five hundred fifty US dollars.
Helpers are expected to carry out tasks such as washing dishes, cleaning clothes, serving
food, washing the car, and just about any sort of household tasks you can imagine.
Invariably, each dollar they save is sent back to their countries, where the money goes
much further than it does in Hong Kong.
6 - Half mile of Machine
Nowadays, whenever you visit a large metropolitan city, it’s certainly not unusual to see
people get around touring the city on segways.
In Hong Kong, it’s just way too dense to get around the touristy areas on a segway.
Luckily, there’s the Central–Mid-Levels escalator and walkway system, which is the
longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world.
It was constructed in 1993 to provide a better commute for locals by linking areas within
the Central and Western District on Hong Kong Island.
It cost around $30 million US dollars to build, and it took around 3 years to complete.
The daily traffic on the escalator exceeds 85,000 people, although it was originally
estimated that only around 27,000 people would use it.
With the escalator now a tourist destination, it’s no wonder why the daily traffic was
underestimated.
The escalators covers over a ridiculous half a mile in distance and elevates over 443 ft
from bottom to top!
At roughly half-a-mile from beginning to end, this is definitely extremely helpful for those
who have trouble with the steep hills of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Island is dominated by uneven, hilly terrain, so it makes sense to have an easy
form of public transport, unusual as it is.
5 - Hong Kong’s Typhoon season
Hong Kong is renowned for its legion of typhoons, not to be confused with tycoons.
Though if you were, you wouldn’t be wrong either.
But as far as the typhoons are concerned, which are mature tropical cyclones, they’re
present in Hong Kong from as early as May through as late as November for a 6 month
typhoon season.
From July to September, the peak typhoon months, locals live with at least a 50% chance of
a storm hitting them.
The best weather in Hong Kong really occurs between December and March, where the weather
is mild and not so hot, but then again, it just depends on preference.
Nowadays, risk of injury or death during a typhoon are low, thanks to technological advances,
although this hasn’t always been the case of course.
Back in 1971, for example, there were at least 110 fatalities reported and almost 300 people
injured during the typhoon season.
There are four Typhoon warnings that exist in Hong Kong: A T1 warning means that a typhoon
has been spotted within 800 kilometers of Hong Kong, meaning the storm is still a day
or two away and the likelihood that the storm will change its path and avoid Hong Kong altogether
is still relatively high.
A T3 warning means that winds of 110 kilometers are expected, which means it’s a good idea
to ensure that things on a balcony are either tied down or brought inside.
A T8 warning is when sh*t is getting really serious.
Everyone is told to stay home, as severe winds of 180 kilometers are expected.
Most, if not all flights will be delayed or cancelled.
A T10 warning is as serious as it gets.
This is when the eye of the storm is expected to hit directly.
The last T10 storm in Hong Kong was 2012, and the one before that was 1999.
4 - Expect Visitors Beating New York, London, and every other
city on Earth, Hong Kong wins by a sizeable margin for the most visited city in the world!
26.7 million tourists allegedly visited the territory in 2016, and during the same year,
coming in at second place, 18.7 million people visited Bangkok in Thailand.
Hong Kong has been voted the “Best Business City in the World” and “Best Business
City in Northeast Asia” for four and five consecutive years in the annual readers’
poll organized by Business Traveller Asia Pacific magazine.
Hong Kong remains a city that has almost a never ending list of things to do for lone
travelers and families alike.
It’s a place that’s extremely favorable for tourists.
Murder is almost unheard of, as Hong Kong is consistently on the list for lowest murder
rates in the world.
Crime dropped to a 36 year low in 2015.
Hong kong is also home to some of the best beaches and enormous natural parks.
As far as man-made parks go, we definitely can’t forget about Disneyland in Hong Kong!
As for other forms of entertainment, Hong Kong has almost everything else you can imagine
of doing in a big city.
3 - Real Estate Prices After Singapore, Hong Kong comes in as the
second most expensive city to live in the world.
At a staggering average of $25,355 Hong Kong dollars or roughly thirty three hundred US
dollars per month for rent, Hong Kong isn’t exactly one of the most affordable places
to live in the world.
To buy a place in Hong Kong, you’re looking at an astronomical average cost of around
twenty five thousand US dollars a square meter!
Of course, prices are going to fluctuate wildly from area to area, but I’m still gonna give
out some rough averages here.
And I’m not just talking about the housing costs that’s high enough to drain some life
savings.
The average price for a new parking space in Hong Kong Island is roughly a hundred and
eighty thousand US dollars!
In 2017, a parking spot was sold for a staggering six hundred and sixty four thousand US dollars
and some change!
However, as far as food goes, you don’t have to give up an arm and a leg to eat at
some great spots.
Hong Kong is renowned for housing one of the cheapest Michelin starred restaurants in the
world, the dim sum restaurant Tim Ho Wan.
There are plenty of local restaurants that cater to both locals and tourists at great
prices if you’re willing to get used to places with a let’s just call it, local
atmosphere!
2 - Cramped conditions in Hong Kong
In certain parts of Hong Kong, given the ridiculous population-density, so-called “coffin cubicles”
exist and more than 100,000 people are cooped-up in such places.
A lot of the less fortunate live in tiny, cluttered, single-rooms, with space that’s
not much wider than their torsos.
Such rooms also serve as their kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms, all miraculously
squashed into a tiny space.
As Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world, this fact is almost hardly
surprising.
According to a study in 2014, there were 57,250 people per square kilometre in Kwun Tong - the
most densely populated district of Kowloon.
This is where the number of poor people living in any given district is highest in Hong Kong,
at roughly a hundred and twenty five thousand people.
Kwun Tong was however, something of an improvement from the now defunct Kowloon Walled City,
which was a largely ungoverned settlement in Kowloon.
It was originally a military fort, which over time became populated by at least 33,000 residents
within borders of just 6.4 acres.
That works out to around a ridiculous 3.25 million people per square mile!
Consequently, it was given the title of being the most densely populated place on Earth.
As a result of an increase in crime, gambling, and prostitution within the district, it was
eventually demolished in 1994 when both Britain and China refused to accept responsibility
for the increasingly worsening conditions.
Today, with a population of almost 7.5 million, Hong Kong is the current 4th most densely
populated place on Earth.
1 - British influence
After 156 years of Colonial British Rule, it’s no wonder that English is still an
official language in Hong Kong, and is still taught at all schools.
Yes, to all you guys out there who can only speak english, don’t worry about the language
barrier when you visit!
Hong Kong was officially handed back over to China beginning on the 1st of July in 1997.
Since the transfer of sovereignty, Hong Kong has undergone something of a minor identity
crisis.
There are those who still yearn for the days of British rule, as the influence of British
and Western culture was once an indispensable aspect of life.
Many physical details remain unchanged however, as there are to this day a plethora of British
street names across cities of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong has streets named Wellington Street, and a road named Prince Edward Road, for example.
And this isn’t exclusive to streets.
Victoria Harbour, which is located between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island is named after,
well … if you don’t know it, you should probably google it.
Also located in Edinburgh Place, in Central, Hong Kong Island is The Queen’s pier.
I’m sure you get the picture.
Hong Kong remains a fascinating place with a culture unlike any other in the world, where
Asian culture is intermixed with an obvious western influence.
Here’s what’s next!