If you can't beat them, join them ie. Let the selfishness and disregard for others wash over you. Otherwise you are in for a lot of anger and frustration.
If you can't beat them, join them ie. Let the selfishness and disregard for others wash over you. Otherwise you are in for a lot of anger and frustration.
Go hiking. Make friends.
Find your people - Meetup
Effective for what? What are you actually trying to achieve - you didn't really spell it out in your original post.
For me, hiking keeps me sane, fit and allows me to make friends. Obviously if you sign up for meetup but never to to any events, that won't work. So - what are your objectives?
Go hiking, join some meet ups, try to make craploads of money (it helps, and even if you don't succeed it's better to have tried), enjoy paying very little tax on the aforementioned, and don't follow the crowd!
The last point is one I find most helpful myself. Hong Kong is a great place to be a little bit eccentric - especially for expats. Peer pressure is such a drag. Of course one has to make sure to stay a bit grounded and not go totally off the rails. But zagging when everybody else is zigging can (if done judiciously) lower stress and crowding in your life. Simple things: arrange your work life so you can hike or go to beaches on weekdays, don't feel you need to get a car or a particular watch to fit some imaginary part...
Try not to elbow the cute little old granny on the MTR in the head just because she thinks it's OK to do it to you. Or limit it to one mainlander granny per week. Max.
Last edited by Kinch; 12-02-2016 at 03:08 PM.
Hmm, judging from your previous post here maybe I should move to the Gold Coast like you did. Most of the people I know hang out in Central or TST. The thing that drives me insane about HK is how spendthrift, capitalistic, materialistic, and obsessed with status the mainstream culture is.
My friends are teachers and civil servants and small business people. Many of them are either local or married to locals. If you live iin "banker central" or spend too much time with rich folks I can see why you would go crazy! I hiked yesterday with a group I rarely frequent and a few of them were "stereotype expats". I'd forgotten such existed. I didn't stay long! Yes there are plenty of normal people in HK just get off the island and socialise with less wealthy folks!