[aussiegal]

I'm curious, since most of us on this site seem to be ex-pats how long has everyone lived here and how long do you plan on staying?

We love HK but miss things we took for granted in Sydney; beautiful weather, lovely beaches, houses with gardens, non-polluted skies etc. We've only been here 5 months and plan on staying for just two years because of these things. I don't want my children to miss out on the things we had growing up and the fact that every month they (we) are coming down with a flu or other illness when we could go years without getting sick makes me feel terrible. Anyone feel the same?

[carang]

came for a one week holiday in may 1995....been here ever since.

[carang]

no reason you can't have a house with a garden...you just need to move off of hk island if you want something that is reasonably priced!(ps. we're moving at the end of this month...2100', 5 bed, 4 bath, front and back garden, 2 balconies, rooftop terrace....all for the incredible price of $15,800!!!!! where, you ask? Sai kung country park!)

[kashismum]

Came for 12 months in Feb 95! Won't be leaving anytime soon.

[ctrbabe1]

We've been here 4 years and will be here at least another two. Aussiegal, I'm like you and miss too many things from home to stay here permanently. (I'm from Seattle in the USA). there are definitely pros for HK, but also a lot of cons. I guess in two years when hubby finishes his program, we will evaluate where we'd like to be more and run with it.

[Matty]

Moved here from Sydney in 2000, only planned to stay for 2 years.
Terribly homesick for the first 12mths, then started to realise that you can have a better lifestyle here, you just need to know where to look.
After being here for 7 years, we have no intention of leaving any time soon.

If you want the lifestyle with the beaches and the garden, move to Sai Kung. It's only a 40 min drive from Central, which is half the time taken to drive from a beachside suburb in Sydney to the city.

I'm an avid Air Pollution Index watcher, and I go to the website each morning to see how bad things are. Interestingly, the last month, the readings have been lower here than in Sydney.
My husband and I wonder if Beijing has shut down some factories or something in the lead up to the anniversary celebrations?

Will be curious to see what happens now that the worlds eyes aren't on HK any longer.

[jane01]

Matty - I've seen the air pollution indexes too and I just don't believe them. Look out your window? Look in the ocean? They just don't compare to Sydney, whatever the scientists might try to tell us. Commonsense has to prevail !

To the original question...I came here from Sydney in 1998 on a one year work contract. A husband, two children and a Hong Kong flat later...still here. Plan to stay here until my oldest is in high school, we'd like her to go to high school in Perth where my husband is from. So about 8'ish more years.

I very much enjoy life in Hong Kong. I've never lived in Perth before and am not looking forward to start all over again and have to make new friends.

[spockey]

We've been here almost a year now. And we've had to recently evaluate our quality of life here. It does not compare to what we had in Sydney. It's hard coz we lived in one of the loveliest suburbs in Sydney... Neutral Bay... Balmoral Beach was round the corner, so was Taronga Zoo... my little bub's early playgrounds. Even when we lived in Melbourne, we lived in South Yarra.

I guess it all depends on what you have to compare it to back home. We've decided to give HK another six months and then conduct another evaluation to see if it's worth staying here.

I understand what you mean Aussiegal. I feel for my bub and feel a tinge of guilt here and there when i think about how i took him away from the comforts we were surrounded with in Sydney.

Cara has a good point though... moving away from HK city helps. That's why we reside out here in the boondocks. Just to get that glimmer of normalcy we had at home... mostly the space.