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American family considering Hong Kong

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  1. #71

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    Quote Originally Posted by HowardCoombs:
    3 kids under 4. I have plenty of scars from it. Yup, they lived. Alas, they didnt trail us 24/7 2 decades actually. The last decade in the same place. Yea, seriously. Is that going to be your make or break? Darling, I've got this really good business plan that could make us millions but we cant do it because I cant imagine going on the bus with 5 kids. Its impossible, never been done, cant fathom it.

    Get your head above the bus fumes and concentrate on the important bits : the bus and your constant hardon for it is not where its at.
    "the bus and your constant hardon for it" I literally LOLed

  2. #72

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    Quote Originally Posted by HK_Katherine:
    the other thing that is worth pointing out about HK, is that you can also get a helper. That would really help out your wife with the young kids, and they are not that expensive (circa 4k a month, plus you have to give them a room to sleep in, they must be live-in). That's one of the big plusses of raising kids here actually.

    5 youngsters, a wife and him. He's going to need a higher budget on helpers than his current 20k housing budget. At least 3 helpers imo.

    Yes true he doesn't need a car, but how are 5 kids getting to school everyday? Maybe I forgot there is a bus. Someone had mentioned that he could get a car, so if OP does, he should be aware of the expenses. It isn't the $1.99/gallon petrol and $80 annual license fees like it is in the states.

    Cultural shock. Umm, I'm American and yes, MOST Americans can not cope with this type of change. Geez, I have millions of examples. There are some exceptions but I see lots of complaining ahead. I guess there are some European countries that are picking up a presence here that are very set in their ways too.

  3. #73

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    20k budget on HK side, here comes a studio. Bunk bed up and have a curtain for your office. If you're lucky you can get a 2 foot by 2 foot balcony and put a small table out there to work when it's loud inside. Hopefully they aren't building any new buildings nearby.

    hongkong7 likes this.

  4. #74

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    Quote Originally Posted by MandM!:
    20k budget on HK side, here comes a studio. Bunk bed up and have a curtain for your office. If you're lucky you can get a 2 foot by 2 foot balcony and put a small table out there to work when it's loud inside. Hopefully they aren't building any new buildings nearby.
    Sheesh. Its already been clarified they wouldn't need to live on hk island. In Mui Wo (or other islands) it's possible to get around on bicycles, and I wouldn't think there's issues with triads either (correct me if I'm wrong). Though I'll admit I don't know about the school situations.

    If the wife is interested, she could consider (perhaps down the road) teaching English.

    Learning Chinese natively could be a huge advantage for the children long-term.

  5. #75

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    Hong Kong is great, but it really annoys me when the locals don't celebrate Thanksgiving properly.

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  6. #76

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    Wow, this thread definitely became active overnight. I should clarify that I'm also generally considered insane in the US.

    Thanks for the advice everyone. This thread does give some good insight into the issues of daily living in HK.

    It seems that just as in the States, people have wildly varying ideas of what's liveable with 5 kids. There are people out here that say you can do it just fine on $2k USD/mo and people who say you'll be miserable without $20k/mo. For us, the truth is in the middle. I think most people actually just end up adjusting to whatever circumstances they have and normalizing on that, but as several posters have pointed out, making an overnight change from the US where we have 3k sq ft, speak the local language, have cars, and going to a place that is the opposite of that and also several times more expensive is probably going to be too much out of the gate.

    Moving forward, I think bringing the wife and kids is off the table for the first little while, at least until I personally know the area better. I may have to make it a series of extended trips and see if I can find a local partner or affiliate, as one poster suggested. Need the time to help my wife feel better about things before moving. The universal insistence that she'll lose it if she's reluctant has convinced me that it's not something she'll adapt to easily.

    Thanks again all. This has been a good thread.

    Last edited by wacpol; 04-11-2015 at 01:56 AM.

  7. #77

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    Quote Originally Posted by MandM!:
    Where can I find the armed dogs by the way?
    Probably Texas
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  8. #78

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    Quote Originally Posted by big_panda:
    An alternative is for you to come out to Hong Kong on you own, and leave the kids and wife back home, with frequent trips back while you set up this new venture.
    Nothing gained with this setup with the future divorce settlement and therapy bills for the kids.

  9. #79

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    Quote Originally Posted by Titus:
    LOL this banter between members making it end up not being about the OP is cracking me up
    I guess you laugh a lot reading GXP on a daily basis then . . .
    Titus likes this.

  10. #80

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    Quote Originally Posted by wacpol:
    Business circumstances are causing us to consider relocating ourselves to Hong Kong. We'll leave the issue of a visa for a different thread. In this thread, I just want to cover some of the basic concerns I have about how, where, and if we'll fit in, and whether this is even a tenable thing. I've been researching this all week.

    We're a large family, 4 kids and 2 adults (my wife and myself). My wife is pregnant with our 5th. We have a home of about 3000 sq ft in the US. I'm an obese man (5'11"/275 lbs), but my family is otherwise fairly normally sized physically. I work from home as a software engineer and sysadmin for a US-based company.

    My first concern is family size. I would speculate that more than 1-2 kids is not common in Hong Kong. If we even could make a move out there work financially, how would we be received by the culture? Would people hold us in hostility? Would people just think it was weird, but not really mind? Will my wife get derisive comments if she takes the kids out while I work? If we don't want to pay tuition at private international schools, what will the schooling experience for the kids be like? Should we expect them to have a hard time? Should Americans even consider public schooling in HK?

    Next, I'm concerned about physical space. We have ~3000 sq ft now for ~$1650 USD, which is obviously many times cheaper than we'd be able to find in HK. We've accepted if we move there we'll have to settle for around 1300-1500 sq ft. In the US homes that size are usually 2 bedrooms. We have 5 in our current house. With space at such a premium, I don't know if or how working from home will really work for me. We'd have difficulty spending more than $20k HKD/mo for housing. Is there a specific place to look at that price range for a family like ours? From reading it sounds like Discovery Bay would be the best fit for us, very Americanized, but I don't know if we'd be able to afford it. We don't want to live in the heart of the city, so something on Lantau Island or in the New Territories is probably where we'd settle. We wouldn't want to live in Kowloon or on Hong Kong Island.

    With my large physical size, I'm worried that I'll be seen as sucking up all of the oxygen in the area and that I won't fit on public transport. I don't think I'm grotesquely obese, but I know in tightly-packed cities like HK things are always cozier, and that Asians are small to begin with. Will I be unable to function in Hong Kong as a substantially overweight white man?

    My wife and kids are not very interested in learning a new language, especially one as hard as Cantonese. I think it's because they're mostly worried about how hard it will be. Any Americans with recommendations for overcoming this in reluctant family?

    Thanks in advance.
    In summary . . .

    Is it possible to make a decent life for you and your family given the circumstances you described. YES, according to a minority of posters who have replied.

    Is it probably you'll make a decent life for you and your family given the circumstances you described? NO, according to a majority of posters who have replied.

    Is it advisable you make this jump? HELL NO. According to just about every poster who has replied.
    Titus likes this.

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