well hey there guys and welcome to
another video
[Music]
so this video is gonna be shot a little
bit outdoors and a little bit indoors
right guys now before we start talking
about the differences between mainland
China and Hong Kong let's first of all
get a couple of things out the way
number one I think I'm fairly qualified
to talk about the subject because first
of all I was married to a Hong Kong girl
and divorced I'd be living here in
mainland China Shenzhen for just almost
10 years now like a month or two shy of
10 years and living here on the border
of Hong Kong I've crossed over many
times and like I said having been
married to a Hong Kong girl I've been to
Hong Kong a lot I've got friends living
in Hong Kong I know how it works very
well there and I also know how mainland
China works very well as most of you
know from watching my videos of course
I've been all over mainland China I'm
not just stuck in a little bubble here
in the south and Shenzhen so I know
pretty much everything the mainland has
to offer and I know pretty much what
Hong Kong has to offer so that's the
first thing I wanted to get out of the
way
okay second thing I really really want
to get out of the way is that this video
is not about politics I know that it's a
very big sort of what would you say it's
a it's a point of contention and there
are lots of people who are very upset
about the whole Hong Kong China thing
people in Hong Kong have very strong
opinions people in mainland have very
strong opinions people from the outside
world have very strong opinions that's
not what this video is about this video
is purely about if you as a foreigner
want to come and live in Asia or in
China and you are torn between choosing
Hong Kong or mainland China this is the
kind of video that could help you but
it's not only for those kind of people
it's also for people to maybe understand
better how it all works because it is
quite confusing and for people who don't
live here and people who are unaware of
the political situation and the
situation here in China they might be
quite confused and they might not
realize that how different Hong Kong is
to mainland China and vice versa what
I'm going to talk about first is the
obvious Hong Kong and China although
it is one country two systems' that's
what they call it anyway
you know Hong Kong used to be a British
colony and it was handed back to China
in 1997 for all intents and purposes
Hong Kong is a different country to
mainland China now the reason I say this
is you actually have to pass over a
border and you have to go through two
sets of customs in order to actually get
into Hong Kong you need to produce your
passport you need to have a different
kind of a visa to get into mainland
China and you need to have a visa or you
know if you're from a visa exempt
country you know different rules apply
when you go into Hong Kong so you know
you can't come to China and expect to
just walk into Hong Kong it doesn't work
that way it is still a different country
as far as like practicality is concerned
let's talk about cost of living all
right let me give you an example I'm
sitting here at a restaurant outside I
can have a couple of beers and have a
meal and it will probably cost me
anywhere between 30 40 maybe 50 RMB max
if I were to have a similar meal in Hong
Kong it would cost me about 120 to 150
Hong Kong dollars basically food and
drink is a lot more expensive in Hong
Kong of course there's a reason for this
you know Hong Kong being an
international city and so on there are
certain standards so you know this beer
that I'm drinking now well it's very
possibly fake
yeah doesn't taste all that great and
very possibly fake who knows the food
quality here as well you never know what
you're getting of course food here on
the men that mainland is amazing it
tastes great you can find so many
different things to eat so many awesome
things to eat but you never really know
if the quality of the food you're eating
is good or not and on many many occasion
I've eaten stuff which is dodgy or you
know I I know it's not well prepared or
it's dirty or I've drank fake beer on
numerous occasions so you know you take
that risk so it's a bit of a balance in
Hong Kong it's a lot more expensive to
go out and eat but over here you take
the risk of having something that's
maybe tainted or poor quality the money
is different here I have a 20 Hong Kong
dollar note let's even get a focus on
that for you
okay now you get different kinds of
notes actually which is kind of
interesting this is a standard chartered
bank note and then over here we have an
HSBC 20 Hong Kong dollar note as you can
see they are different but they actually
have the same value etc all right here I
have a 10 Hong Kong dollar note give me
a second I quite like this one because
it has this little see-through thing
over here it's quite interesting and
it's made out of plastic kind of like
Australian money okay back alright
mainland Chinese money is the RMB not
the Hong Kong dollar here we have a
hundred they all look the same
you know you don't get different
variants of the RMB I've got a whole
video about money if you guys are
interested in looking at Chinese money
there's a video I'll put a link down
below okay right so money is different
so also it's something to bear in mind
if you're going to go to Hong Kong or if
you're going to go to mainland China
remember to change your money being an
ex British colony of course when you
drive in Hong Kong you drive on the
left-hand side of the road which is
opposite to here in China so you know
China like America you drive on the
right-hand side of the road but just
like South Africa Australia and other
British colonies in Hong Kong you drive
on the left so you know steering wheels
on the other side in the car can be a
little bit confusing
people let's talk about language now
first of all in Hong Kong people speak
Cantonese here in mainland China people
speak Mandarin there are parts of
Guangdong where people speak Cantonese
as well but you know Hong Kong has its
own sort of special variant of Cantonese
on top of that
here we use simplified characters in
Hong Kong traditional characters just
like Taiwan you'll also notice that all
the signs are bilingual both in Chinese
and English which is great for a
foreigner because you can read
everything another thing that's really
useful for foreigners is most people can
speak English in Hong Kong if you go
into 7-eleven or any shop the shop
assistant will usually be able to speak
at least a marginally good level of
English in fact I've been embarrassed a
couple of times going into Hong Kong and
I try to speak to them in Mandarin
because of course I can't speak
Cantonese and I'll go up to 7-eleven as
a shop attendant or something and I'll
ask them in Chinese like how much is
this and they'll reply oh that will be
$12 sir so you know they can understand
Mandarin to 2 degree but because of the
whole you know sort of situation that
goes on on this side of the world anyway
they prefer to speak Cantonese or
English in Hong Kong let's talk about
food for a moment here now Hong Kong is
an international city it's a travel hub
and because it's also an ex British
colony it has all the international
brands it has an amazing selection of
international foods you can find any
kind of food that you want there be it
British food American food Indian food
Mexican food you know the kind of food
that we are accustomed to in the West in
fact I'd go as far as to say that if you
went to New York or you went to Hong
Kong you'd probably find pretty much the
same kind of choice as far as food is
concerned now you have to bear in mind
that in mainland China although there's
a massive selection of Chinese food and
so many different interesting awesome
foods to eat and try mainland China does
Western food poorly it's really really
really difficult to find any kind of
good Western food over here so that's
something you should take into
consideration if you like cheese and you
like western food things like that
you know Hong Kong's definitely the
place next thing I'm going to talk about
is a bit of a point of contention for me
and that is internet and Internet
freedom here in mainland China
everybody knows the Internet is filtered
it goes through the Golden Shield
project it's called that's the official
name you know everybody calls it the
Great Firewall of China but basically
all the major Western websites are
blocked things like YouTube Facebook
Twitter blogger WordPress any kind of
big influential website Google in fact
all Google is blocked you can't even
just you can't even do a Google search
here there are ways around this with
VPNs and so on and so forth that's
that's how I get my videos online but of
course it's a pain in the ass it's slow
it's unreliable but in Hong Kong of
course you've got high-speed Internet
it's completely unfiltered and
completely open so that's another thing
to take into consideration if you go to
Hong Kong I actually quite liked that
app up over the border if I had my phone
suddenly on my Google Apps update I can
use all my all the functions of my phone
correctly but as soon as I'm over here
it's just all a complete mess and a real
pain in the ass
so you know that's just one of the the
things you trade off living in the
mainland but I'm going to now give you
my own personal feelings on living in
Hong Kong and living here and why I
personally choose to live in the
mainland instead of in Hong Kong why do
I choose to live in mainland China
instead of Hong Kong because you know
the option was there for me I was
married to a Hong Kong resident I could
have actually you know gotten
citizenship and all that because like an
international country that is an option
whereas mainland China for a foreigner
to get a green card is a practical
impossibility although it's
theoretically possible it's actually not
anyway why did I choose to to live here
instead of Hong Kong well Hong Kong is
an amazing beautiful city with so many
different things to do and so many
options and all the international bands
play there and you know it's all it's
like it's like living overseas and
that's basically why mainland China is a
lot more of an adventure
it's very different to the Western world
things work completely differently here
so if you're out there to to have an
adventure and to see new things and to
experience completely different things
mainland China is definitely a better
bet although you must be prepared to be
thrown completely out of your comfort
zone because you know that's what China
is all about so that's reason number one
hmm
reason number two the cost of living
it's really really really high if you
want to live the same sort of lifestyle
that you live in mainland China you need
to have at least 30 or 40,000 Hong Kong
dollars a month salary whereas somebody
earning 8,000 or 10,000 RMB here in
mainland China can live the same you
know sort of quality of life and by that
I mean purchasing goods saving money
paying rent you know enjoying yourself
going out and drinking so cost of living
is just so much higher in Hong Kong it's
a very very expensive place and that has
it to say it's one of the most expensive
places in the world of course there's a
lot of money going around Hong Kong most
Hong Kong residents are fairly well-off
but you know it's it's a big pressure
and you know when you come and live here
in the mainland without that massive
financial pressure you can actually
really relax so it's a much more relaxed
lifestyle here in mainland China next
reason is population density now
everybody knows that China has got a
massive population right but it's not
that apparent actually when you live
here there are lots of people everywhere
and compared to your hometown or your
home country you're gonna be blown away
you're gonna be like what's going on
there just people everywhere you know
there's not a single time of day that
you don't see people go outside now of
like 3 a.m. in the morning there'll be
people but Hong Kong because it's so
small it has a massively high population
density so you know when you're walking
out on the street it's always crowds
there's always queues it's always really
difficult to to go anywhere if you want
to go to a restaurant at dinnertime or
lunchtime there will always be a waiting
like a waiting list there'll be people
sitting on chairs outside waiting to get
into the restaurant here
chyna not so much even though there's a
high population density it's not the
same you can go to a restaurant at
dinnertime there'll always be a table
there won't always be this sort of
shoulder-to-shoulder crowding everywhere
so that's something to take into
consideration right guys I I hope this
video has helped you make up your mind
as to where you want to go if you want a
big adventure come to the mainland if
you want to have a really interesting
still an adventure but a really
interesting good quality of life Hong
Kong is also really good bet it's
entirely up to you if you have questions
please leave them in the comment section
below I'll get back to you and I will be
making a video on how to actually cross
the border into Hong Kong in depth in
the future so if that's what you are
looking for it's coming that's it really
guys until next time stay awesome
[Music]