Moving to Hong Kong

hi Myra,

I lived in Hong Kong for almost 5 years before I had kids. I tutored a bunch of expat kids there that went to various schools -- HKIS (HK international school), CIS (Canadian international school), and Chinese International School. All the schools were great...just expensive.

Don't worry about the language thing, most everyone speaks english. plus, the signs are pretty good there. Cab drivers are a bit hard to understand at times, but most of them know the major streets, landmarks, and hotels.

I'm not sure about preschools (there are a bunch around but mainly in Chinese settings), fitness centers are mainly in Central and Kowloon. Expats usually live in the Central area (where there is a huge escalator that you can use to get to local shops and downtown Hong Kong) or in the outlying island like Discovery Bay (but it takes 40 minutes by boat to get to HK island). Where you want to live will depend on how close your husband wants to be to work, how much your husband's housing stipend will be, if you will own a car, and if you want a lot of land to "roam".

I loved it there and all my friends from the US that moved there to work all loved the vibrancy of the area. PM me if you want know more.

L.

also- check out if there is a Meetup group- there might be some people you can meet when you get there.
Meetup.com

I have friends who lived in Hong Kong for years. They loved it and didn't return until their kids were high school aged. I can see if she'd mind speaking with you--she's awesome, she won't mind :)

You can email me through my blog.

Bebe

www.thosecrazybeans.blotspot.com

My step-son and family are just about to move back from Hong Kong where they have been for several years. Email me your address and I will forward it to them. They were incredibly happy there.

We've recently expatted to Brazil and there is a club here that helps expats. I did a search online and it looks like there are a couple in hong kong. Hopefully you haven't seen these yet and they are useful.

http://www.newcomersclub.com/cn.html

Good luck on the new adventure.

My girlfriend just returned a year ago. Email me your email address and I'll forward it to her. I'm sure she'd be happy to talk with you. She had 3 children (13, 6 & 8) when she went, and they stayed for 1 year (it was a temporary assignment).