When I first came to Hong Kong in 2000, I almost immediately fell in Love with Hong Kong. Although I hadn’t really seen much on that 8 day trip, I still felt good walking around the city and feeling the vibe of the Hong Kong streets. We all know that if you are traveling somewhere that if it doesn’t feel right, then it isn’t right. Hong Kong felt right for me right from the beginning. Here I will highlight 5 reasons why I fell in Love with Hong Kong.

Safety

Hong Kong has to be one of the safest places on planet Earth. I am amazed year after year that it is as safe as it is considering the overcrowded streets and living conditions in some areas. On top of that, it is most hot and humid in Hong Kong most of the year and in other places, those conditions would make crime and lot higher.

You can walk down the street at any time of the day or night and not have to worry about your safety and that is why this is my city now. It’s a good feeling to know that you can be safe. While I do think that we need a bit of a hint of danger in our lives as it keeps us on our toes a bit, you still don’t want to live somewhere where your personal safety and that of your child is in possible danger all of the time. Hong Kong has some of the lowest crime rates of anywhere in the world.

People

Hong Kong people are easily some of the nicest big city people I have ever met. From my experience, Hong Kong people genuinely want to be friendly to you and to engage in conversation. Granted, I am a foreigner here and people are eager to speak Cantonese with a foreigner to learn more about them (aka nosey) but it makes for some great experiences 97% of the time. It’s still a big city and you’re going to run into some people that are a bit off mentally and just like anywhere, you need to brush people off and not let them in your space. But overall, I feel that Hong Kong people are amazing and I Love every one of them.

Energy

The energy of the city is made by the people and this energy can be amazing as well. I Love how the city moves and is so efficient for so much. For someone not used to it, it mostly looks like organized chaos but once you get caught up in it and are working hard to accomplish things in life, the energy of Hong Kong will be your oyster of life for your work and your play. You just can’t let yourself get caught up too much on anything that isn’t related to positive growth because this city can eat people up for many reasons (will go into that in a later post). Feel the city and absorb its energy and you will be glad you did.

Work Mentality

Along the lines of the energy and the people of Hong Kong, the work mentality for most people is really interesting to witness and can be contagious in some ways. Personally, I enjoy working hard and taking pride in what I do and for the most part I can see that Hong Kongers are very much the same way. Jobs of any nature are not looked down upon and people are happy to be working. Whether it is in McDonalds or 7-11, there isn’t a stigma projected to people if they have a job of such entry level offering.

Hong Kong people are not adverse to working on weekends and putting in a lot of over-time as that is the norm of the working class to do so. Sometimes people do not want to be the first one to leave the office and that would be shared amongst everyone, so it turns out that until it is a respectable time in the evening, no-one leaves the office.

Another strong influence of a great work mentality is that there is a business in every possible corner of every building in the city it seems. It breeds entrepreneurs to the highest degree. There are small shops under stair wells and in what looks like a broom closest. My first business in MongKok was a shop that was 110 sq/ft and that was normal for the shopping center. It’s great, and the Hong Kong Government has so little red tape to open a business that you can literally fill out a form, pay a nominal fee, and in 10 minutes you have a business registration.

Urbanology

I am someone that just Loves living in a city and seeing how urbanology works first hand. Hong Kong is an urbanologist’s dream place. The city is so densely populated with so much of what makes the machine that is Hong Kong, that it can be fun to just stand on a busy corner somewhere in Hong Kong and just watch urbanology and sociology merge in front of you. From the over convenient public transportation system to the multitude of overnight eateries, Hong Kong is a city like no other in many regards. Once you have spent time in Hong Kong, you will say for certain that Hong Kong is really the city that never sleeps, not NYC.

Come and visit Hong Kong as soon as you can. Send me a message and let me show you some of the great places that Hong Kong has and I’m sure that you’ll be amazed.

KOMK