I used to live in North beach, the border area between Chinatown and Italian neigberhood, in San Francisco. Since I moved to HK island, I found out these two cities have a lot of similiarities:
Ocean city, wonderful view; a lot of hils and hillsteps; limited land, high renting and living cost; culture diversity, wonderful melting spot of East and West. And, both cities have tram/trolley bus.
The differences:
1. SF has mission district and haight-ashbury, has some sort of free-spirit elements around. I am too short in hk to comment on HK's spirit,but definitely not free-spirit style.
2. Nancy Pelosi, Diana Feinstein, Baraba Boxer, all female US politicans are from SF. In the political arena, SF is a female-dominated city. HK is opposite, a male-dominated city both in politics and business community.
3.SF's Embarcadero center is older, IFC here is quite modern......
Any other comments????