You know you’re an expat in Hong Kong when…
Signs you’re a foreigner living in Hong Kong.
But I’m not alone. Hong Kong is laden with foreigners like me who have come and decided to stick around for a while. The expat experience here is distinct and intense, and while we aren’t a monolith, I feel like there are a few things that define most, if not all, gweilos who reside here for extended periods of time.
Ergo, without any further ado, you know you’re an expat in Hong Kong when:
1. Your chopsticks game is off the hook.
2. Encounters with huge roaches are typical and don’t phase you in the least.
3. 90% of your friends live along the Island MTR line (and about half of them refer to it as the “blue” line).
4. You pay an exorbitant amount in rent (yet your pad is as roomy as a thimble).
5. Your place is 350 square feet, yet you employ a helper (aka maid) to come in to clean once a week.
6. Regardless of your nationality, you call your apartment a flat and your phone a mobile. Plans to meet with friends are put into the diary, you go to leaving dos and fancy dress parties on the regular, and you’ve referred to an afternoon as an arvo at least once in conversation. #ExpatEnglishIsBritishAndAustralianEnglish
7. Ok lah is part of your normal vocabulary.
8. Your attempts at speaking Cantonese are often met with confused faces because your tones are all wrong.
9. You own a Cathay Pacific Amex Card and use it religiously to pay all your bills so you can rack up those coveted Marco Polo points. Problem is that everyone and their grandma has the Amex, so a dinner at a restaurant with friends often ends in a fight to charge the whole table’s bill to one person’s card. #PointsGrab
10. Anything less than 4G LTE is uncivilized.
11. You have lived through at least one typhoon.
12. You’ve been to Shenzhen for a spa day or to go shopping in Lo Wu.
13. You know to go to Chun King mansions for the best Indian food.
14. Junks have nothing to do with trash and everything to do with “getting trashed” on a boat with 50 of your closest friends.
15. You don’t remember what life was like before you owned an Octopus card, you can use it for everything!
16. Winding up in Wan Chai in the wee hours of the morn means it was a great night out.
17. The Rugby Sevens is either your favourite or most hated time of the year.
18. Chinese New Year is either your favourite or most hated time of the year.
19. Tinder is a way of life.
20. You have almost been run over by someone pushing an old-school handcart.
21. Do not hawk/do not spit signs are a common sighting. You are so unbothered by this practice that you don’t flinch when the guy beside you on the bus horks a loogie into a napkin.
22. You know to go to Connaught Road on a Sunday for Filipino food.
23. You are unimpressed by bamboo scaffolding– it makes so much more sense than steel!
24. A night out usually begins on Wyndham Street.
25. You’ve used AsiaExpat to buy and sell stuff and Man With A Van to transport it.
26. You’ve experienced the mad dash to Fortress or Sogo to buy a dehumidifier, only to discover they are all sold out. Your walls of your flat will continue to sweat until the stores restock.
27. You know that PR stands for Permanent Residency and meeting an expat with it often elicits a sigh of awe or envy.
28. You’ve nearly lost your lunch on the bus to Stanley Market (or the TurboJet ferry to Macau) at least once.
29. You know to avoid Causeway Bay on a Sunday.
30. You’ve paid a ridiculous amount for an imported food item because it’s “from home”.
31. You know that blue skies are the exception, not the rule.
32. You were initially sent to work here for 6 months and before you know it you’ve been here for 6 years– you don’t want to leave!
