Overview of Hong Kong
Expat culture shock in Hong Kong may not be as traumatic as you would expect, especially if you are from an English speaking nation. Hong Kong is a former colony of Britain, and as a result, the locals’ English proficiency is rather high. Moreover, the religious and cultural tolerance of those living here is quite broad, so it is normal to see Indonesian domestic helpers praying towards Mecca in front of a post office on a Sunday, just proximal to Falun Gong followers practicing in front of the Court of Final Appeal on a daily basis.
That being said, Hong Kong has a population of more than seven million people, so the crush of the populace can be daunting, as are some major differences with the small things in life. For example, Hong Kongers are generally an American size 0, a British size 6, or an European size 32, so expats will inevitably face situations where well-meaning salespeople with limited English vocabulary confront you with: “NO YOUR SIZE! YOU TOO FAT!”
The good news is that there are plenty of resources to mitigate the culture shock in Hong Kong. You can join Necescity (for men) or Sassy Hong Kong (for women) to ease into the local culture, with the help of others who have been there and done that. Additionally, respective national Chamber of Commerce’s regularly organise events where you could meet up with people from home and share your scary Hong Kong stories. HK Magazine and CNNGo.com also provide accurate observations on the locals, and supply information about events as well.
Wanna know more about what I find uniquely Hong Kong? Read the rest of the article at Expat Arrivals!
Language Barrier in Hong Kong
Hong Kongers are usually Cantonese and English speaking, with some degree of fluency in Mandarin. However, this bilingual nature actually makes it rather difficult for expats to pick up any Cantonese; people will insist on speaking to you in English just because you look like a foreigner. Miss Fong has observed this puzzling trend before as well, read her blog to find out more. If you do want to learn Chinese, try Mandarin. Cantonese is known to be hard for foreigners to learn, while Mandarin is useful when you have to liaise with colleagues from China.
Common Law in Hong Kong
There are many unspoken rules in Hong Kong, and it helps to recognise that you need give yourself time to learn these things as you go. In particular, the way in which people manage the space around them is something that takes some getting used to. For example, when you are on the escalator you must stand on the right side, because the left side is for others to overtake you. Additionally, Hong Kongers are very keen on queuing up. You will see visible queues in front of everything, be it the bus stop, cinema box office, or Louis Vuitton flagship store.
As you begin to settle in, you will start to acquire a basic knowledge about what to do and what not to do in the city. For example, don’t chuck your rubbish out on the streets, but try and hold onto it until you see a bin. There is a 1,500 HKD fine to dumping rubbish, cigarette butts, or allowing your dogs to poop on the street without picking it up and disposing of it properly. Also, Sundays are rather busy from Causeway Bay to Central due to the endless streams of demonstrations. Domestic helpers take their rest days to gather on the streets in packs, and it won’t be long before you realise that it is best to take the subway/tube (named MTR) to avoid traffic jams.
Accommodation in Hong Kong
If you are used to living in huge houses with lawns and garages, the sizes and the prices of Hong Kong flats might be a nasty shock. With such a dense population, you can expect everybody to have a very small share of space. The real estate prices have sky rocketed over recent years due to the financial situation, so much that there are lots of satirical pieces produced, in forms of drama as well as on YouTube.
When you have finally decided on which small space you would acquire and get your home décor delivered, expect it to show up late at your door. The locals are looking for a way to get around it as well, but meanwhile, if you are getting anything delivered or repaired, the best you could do is to rent a good movie.
Food in Hong Kong
Hong Kongers eat out a lot, at least several times a week, so keep yourself updated by surfing Openrice. Eating out has a diverse range, from a rushed weekday lunch in Central, to a local weekend brunch in a Cha Chan Teng (local fast food), to a fancy dinner at an upscale club, to a pub meal in Wanchai. One thing you should note though, is that Hong Kongers love to take photos of their meals for mysterious reasons, be it gourmet cuisine or just your hum-dee-dum set from McDonald’s, so when you are sharing a meal, be sure you give your friends abundant time to photograph the food first before digging in.
At very formal dinners, it is expected that the host or the oldest person on the table would start eating before everybody else follows. However, if you are just sharing a meal with friends, there is no need to observe this. Moreover, when you are sharing a meal with friends, you are usually expected to go Dutch, whereas with the older generations, they tend to compete to treat. For business meals, it is usually rather clear as to who is treating who, i.e. the client is getting a free meal, and so you don’t need to be stressed about that. For dates, usually men pay for the meal, but women should offer paying their share first.
Weather in Hong Kong
Many people find Hong Kong’s humidity unbearable, to the extent where British soldiers who first settled in Hong Kong over a century ago died mainly from the smog and the heat, and not from battles wounds. The humidity is most prominent in Spring time, followed by the crazy heat in Summer where you will inevitably have to carry a cardigan with you everywhere you go. That is right, a cardigan. Why? Because all the malls and office buildings will be blasting their air-conditioning full on, so if you wear glasses you can be sure you will be wiping the fog off it several times a day. Hong Kong has a relatively short Winter, if any at all, so you would see Hong Kong girls starting to wear scarves and woolies at 20˚C, just because they don’t get that many chances to.
Etiquette in Hong Kong
- When receiving gifts from locals, don’t open the gift in front of them, as that is considered rather rude. Just thank them graciously and then put it away.
- Don’t give clocks away as gifts, because it sounds the same as mourning when said out loud.
- If you are bringing flowers to a friend’s home, especially during Chinese New Year, don’t bring any white flowers, because it symbolises death.
- At occasions where you need to give or receive business cards, you should do so with both hands to show respect.
- When you find yourself in the middle of a crowd, say in the MTR during rush hours or walking through the Chinese New Year wet market in Victoria Park, you are expected to move rather swiftly, otherwise the people behind you will start shoving.