christof's blog

Settled in Hong Kong

As part of my personal globalization efforts I have moved to HK for a month to find out how it is to live here.
I rented a service apartment in a nice area in Central (Hollywood Rd), conveniently located to the major (OK, OK: expat) venues incl. the Central escalator, Lang Kwai Fong, California Fitness, bars and restaurants.
Yesterday an extensive walk up to the peak (some nice pics here).
So far, work is going fine, though, of course, the time zone is a bit inconvenient for me and my business partners in the US and EU.
Other than that, life is very nice. Meeting with several friends and acquaintances over the weekend, and making new friends. Tonight dinner with Stanford classmate JNO (it's his B-day tomorrow), tomorrow classical music concert, Friday another dinner with friends, Saturday lunch in Shenzhen with business friends, and so on.
The biggest preoccupation here is space. It is just extremely tiny everywhere and you constantly run into people (literally). I think if you can't afford a large apartment (and it has gotten really expensive again), you'll probably suffer claustrophobia, esp. when you arrive from the US, the supersize country.
Weatherwise we have been extremely lucky: Apparently it was rainy until we came, now we have 3 days of blue sky and temperatures around 18C (65F). And the moment we left SF, the temperature there dropped to the low 40s, I hear.
The air pollution is not so bad this time, but that's probably a function of the wind direction and can change any time.
The food is great, though I eat much less and less frequently while I am here. Also, the food doesn't lend itself so much to alcohol, so in fact, Saturday, though having been clubbing from 10pm to 4am in the morning, I have been drinking only one Gin Tonic (part of my admission to pp) and (my newest discovery) Tonic water and Chai for the rest of the entire evening. Very healthy!
The Internet connection is decent, though a little slower than in the Valley. Some websites seem to be particularly slow, e.g. a German banking site where we have the online banking of ODBMS.ORG. Perhaps they block/filter access from China?
I love the Octopus card/payment system - so convenient - and the ability to shop/eat any time of the day or night (downtown, that is, as opposed to 24 hrs. Safeway shopping in the urbs in the US).
Oh, and, of course, HK is the big shopping town. I personally prefer Singapore, but it is still great and I have replenished some of my wardrobe. IT shopping is still to come, I just need to wait for my next paycheck to clear... ;-)
Allright, I keep you posted about more insights of this concept trip "live in HK like the locals do".

posted by Christof Wittig @ 9:54 PM