To get some feel for the place that I'm actually going to spend almost a year in I've been doing some research on Hong Kong living. Particularly into what kind of places people stay in. Since I can't read Chinese I'm guessing that what I'm really coming up with here is mostly how foreigners in Hong Kong generally stay. I find it a bit interesting.

One way for new residential areas to be built seem to be to finding a spot where there is nothing and then build a large complex there, with everything in place owned by a single company. Then you come up with a name that's will fit in the magazine ads like "Discovery Bay". Every one of these complexes has their own "club" with swimming pools, tennis courts, marinas and so on. All in all I get a very touristy feeling when looking at these places. Perhaps they are a mix of tourist resort and residential areas, many people living there appears to be foreigners working in Hong Kong for longer or shorter periods of time. There is something artificial about these places in more than one respect - for instance Discovery Bay that I mentioned before has it's own artificial beach and every night you can see the fireworks from the nearby Disney Resort. I'd really like to hear from someone living in one of these places. Could living there really be like being on holiday all of the time?

Another thing that constantly strikes me is how much I like the contrast between the green mountains, the sea and those high buildings shooting up from the ground. A majority of the apartments seem to have large windows - and every single one of them seem to comes with a great view. You can of course stay in the middle of town instead of one of the more suburban complexes I've been describing. But just as everywhere else in the world - living in the central of town comes with a price. The apartments are smaller and more expensive. I saw one at a reasonable price - with no window. But hey, as a substitute an lcd-tv was included in the rent. You can't get everything in this world.