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Originally Posted by destroycreate
What an epic thread of an epic city. Love the snippets you wrote too!
As much as we romanticize hyper-urbanity in this forum though, I do wonder if HK actually would be a pretty tough/miserable city to live in. The reason why I say this is because there are few cities I can think of which offer such limited living spaces. Conditions look ultra, ultra cramped, and the housing stock pretty rough. I've seen documentaries showing how HK citizens are living in rooms the size of a closet, and have to share a communal bathroom/toilet - essentially akin to SROs. I feel like in the west we get served glitzy, luxurious images of HK, but it seems like the day-to-day for ordinary people there is extremely tough. Cost of living proportionate to salaries also seem insane - how does a supermarket cashier even afford to live there? Would love to hear your POV!
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Life is tough. You're on your own and don't depend on the government to give you a hand-out. It's laissez-faire to the extreme, but the middle class isn't too bad. We don't live in big houses and a 400 square foot apartment is considered big for a family. But on the plus side, a live-in maid costs barely anything, the countryside is nearby, and we have so many lovely places to visit within a short-haul flight. There's a lot of great food and if you're a bit more wealthy, life is quite sweet here with lots of temptations and luxurious experiences.
There is quite a large proportion of poor though, and those live in those closets and need a few jobs to make ends meet. Average salaries for university graduates are quite low, but you just need to be in the right industry and work hard and your take-home will be significantly larger than the equivalent job in New York and London thanks to low taxes.