My first year in HK

Between Toronto's own Chinese community and keeping in touch with my relatives, I was somewhat familiar with HK and the culture here. And after living and working in the city, I think I have a better understanding of the people here and how they live. But sometimes I'm still baffled by how people react to certain things. Like wieners--for some reason people here really love them. Rather than treating wieners as a cheap street food like hot dogs, it's usually found in trendy restaurants and kinda costly too (~50-85 HKD).

The move to HK was a relatively smooth transition (except for the unexpected flood from a broken toilet pipe last August), and looking back my first year here it's has been filled with fun and eye opening experiences.

After learning somethings the hard way (like backtracking through Wan Chai to cross the road), here are my 5 top tips about living in  HK:

#5 Flag down the bus driver
Multiple bus lines usually stop at the same bus stop. Unless there's already a queue of people waiting for the bus, it's a good idea to stick out your hand to get the driver's attention so he knows you're waiting for him to pull into the stop.

Flagging down a minibus driver is even more important as they typically zip in and out of lanes much faster than buses do (Photo: CathC)

#4 Buy a bucket for storing flushing water
HK uses seawater flushing. This means nearly 100 litres of salt water flowing through your pipes (usually ceramic coated iron pipes) every day. So don't be surprised when there's a temporary shutdown of flushing water to your unit. Most residential buildings will schedule period tank cleaning (to remove the scale/salt buildup) or have "emergency repairs" (pipe bursting from corrosion).

Photo credit: HKIE

#3 Look for the skywalk
The road is for cars--people walk on Skywalks and footbridges. According to the HK Department of Transportation, the city has over 400,000 private cars alone--excluding all the taxis, buses, and minibuses. Considering the narrow city streets, all these vehicles makes for a very busy roads. So it's not surprising that pedestrian traffic is moved upwards, onto the skywalks. So most busy areas (Central, Wai Chai, Tsim Sha Tsui, etc.) the roads are lined with cement blocks on either side-meant to deter you from jaywalking. So if you want to cross the road and not near a traffic light, just look up--there's usually stairs leading up to a skywalk nearby.

The Tsim Sha Tsui promenade skywalk (Photo: CathC)

The skywalk at the Mid-Levels near LKF (Photo: CathC)

#2 Sightsee on the public bus

If you're not in a rush to be somewhere, taking the bus (e.g. KMB, or Citylink) is a great way to see the city. The view looking down from these double-decker buses is fantastic. Stops are automatically announced, usually near popular sites and stations, you can get an economic tour of the city on the bus.

A view of the old Kai Tak airport near Kowloon Bay (Photo: CathC)

A city tour on the 98C through Mong Kok (photo: CathC)

The bus is fantastic, unless you happen to be stuck in traffic--the only highway out of TKO (Photo: CathC)

#1 Re-energize with a weekend getaway

In a bustling city like HK where OT-ing is just part of the workday, a weekend getaway is the perfect way to rest up and re-energize for the week ahead. Just an hour ferry-ride from HK, Macau is the ideal getaway for the weekend (or even day trip). The ferries run nearly 24 hours so there's no need to buy tickets in advance. But the seats are usually filled, so arrive at least 30 minutes before your ferry boards to make sure you can get a ticket. The tasty snacks are definitely worth the crowds at the ferry terminal. See my post on Macau for photos of some of the delicious food that the city has to offer.

Top-Macau's ferry terminal Bottom-HK's ferry terminal (Photo: CathC)