Tell me all about Hong Kong

[HKdreaming]

I'm considering a job out there. It's me, 2 kids 10 and 12, plus DH (who would be a SAHD/tradie/volunteer - whatever he can do/get).

What is a good salary for a family of 4 / director level? HKD 1.5m + bonus? Is that a decent salary? As the main breadwinner I have to ensure it would work obviously and know that disrupting the kids now needs to be worth it. It would be a local contract but perhaps I'd be able to negotiate some financial assistance with with schooling.

Talking of which - we are looking at the French International Schools as we're currently in a French speaking country and keen to keep up the kids' French. So I guess Happy Valley or Wan Chai are good areas to live? What kind of budget is realistic?

What life is like there? How is work life balance? What do you do at weekends? How is the weather? Do you jet off elsewhere in Asia or does that not really happen in reality? We're very happy in our current location, though getting complacent so considering a change but it's got to be right.

We have no real intention of going back to the UK at any point (been away over 8 years now) - we've always said we're more likely to go somewhere else, so this could be our next somewhere else and guess we'd probably need to see the kids through the rest of schooling in this next move...

Tell me all about HK please!

Most posh apartment blocks have special slides for cats from the 40th floor balcony to a custom-made catio next to the swimming pool.HK cats love sliding, apparently.

What do you think?

Lots of people have cats in apartments but they just have to be indoor cats with a litter tray which can be not ideal in the summer tbh. If you have a balcony you can have the tray out there and net the balcony as long as the landlord agrees. My sister does this. Another option is to live further out and have a house. The flip side of that is you’ll probably need a car. Also there is a risk that they get eaten by a snake if they’re not used to them as these houses tend to be in areas with quite a lot of wildlife.

Yes- it would depend on how reliable and how big your bonus is relative to salary. I used to work a back office role in asset management and in 8 years the bonus always paid out and was within 3% of the “guide”. Plenty of people in HK live a lifestyle that depends on their bonuses. Whether that’s sensible is another matter but that’s the truth of it.

@LaPalmaLlama snakes?!?!? Also I saw someone say wildboar. Seriously?

Yes, both. And wild buffalo on Lantau and up in the New Territories. And porcupines. HK is about 50% country park and the rural bits are pretty wild.

When I used to visit my relatives there they lived in high rise apartments and owned cats. It was fine. Other people in their complex owned dogs. To my amazement I even saw someone with their German Shepherd!

My relatives left though because they were teachers and the Chinese government was starting to tell them what they couldn’t teach…. Shame. It’s such an amazing place.