March 17, 2024
If I asked you to find Hong Kong on a map of China, you would have difficulty finding it. You will note that I didn’t start this blog with Hong Kong, China… The reason being is that Hong Kong, unbeknownst to many, is not part of China. Hong Kong is a special administrative region in China similar to how Puerto Rico is not part of the United States but a territory of the United States. As I will share, this arrangement has its benefits and its drawbacks.
Hong Kong was established as a British colony as a consequence of losing the Opium War that I wrote about earlier in my post on Shanghai. The United Kingdom established a long-term lease on Hong Kong and did not hand over the territory to China until 1997. Hong Kong has separate governing and economic systems than mainland China under a principal commonly referred to as “one country, two systems”.
The benefit of that separate system is that Hong Kong is one of the world’s most significant financial centers. Home to the second highest number of billionaires in the world (want to know #1, answer at end of post) and the largest number of high-net-worth individuals in the world and the highest per capita incomes in the world! Some of that wealth must have benefits (at least to the wealthy) because Hong Kong also has the highest life expectancy in the world.
Hong Kong has the highest number of skyscrapers in the world. Locals joke that the national bird of Hong Kong is the crane-the building crane. And Hong Kong is an expensive city to live in. New car purchasers come with a 100% luxury, yet I saw every kind of exotic car being driven. And some advice if you fancy coming to Hong Kong. Jaywalking is a serious crime in Hong Kong; $500.00 first offence, $1,000.00 each subsequent offence. Throw a cigarette on the sidewalk-$500.00, spit on the sidewalk-$500.00. No wonder everything looks so clean!
Despite having an abundance of skyscrapers for the wealthy to live in, housing in Hong Kong has been well documented to experience a chronic persistent shortage of available affordable housing.
A real drawback to this wealth inequality is that although buildings developed for the working class look good on the outside, inside apartments tell a different story. Most are less than 400 square feet and will commonly be lived in by 4-6 people. Apartments will have a 30-inch TV (which is considered huge) and no need for a remote control. You can touch the TV from almost anywhere in the room.
The financial inequality is creating real problems in Hong Kong. In the last few years there have been a number of citizen lead protests before never heard of in Hong Kong. The unfortunate end result is that Hong Kong is now calling on Beijing to enact laws in addition to the draconian ones imposed following the prodemocracy protests. Known as Article 23, the law will have the power to hold suspects without charges; and severe punishment for those who publish “false or misleading statements against the state”.
Like mainland China, the definition of “false or misleading statements” has never been defined.
Oh, and the city with the most billionaires-New York City.
However, #3 is Beijing and #4 is Shanghai.
Thanks for travelling with us…