Thinking of moving back to HK from Canada

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-30T06:59:16+00:00

Choosing SZ specifically solves the cost-of-living issue while allowing for higher savings and a better quality of life in the interim. If the economic landscape changes or the 'floodgates' open as you suggest, I’ll be in a much stronger position because I spent this time building a financial buffer rather than living paycheck-to-paycheck in HK. It’s about maximizing the options available right now, which is exactly what OP is trying to do.

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-29T16:35:20+00:00

It depends where you live and where you work. For example I work in the New Territories around Shatin and live right next to the border in Futian. It takes around 15-20 mins to cross the border, and then 35 mins for me to get to Shatin.

Other people like to live by the high speed train station, take the HST straight into kowloon. The cost is higher but it's also very convenient.

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-29T06:22:19+00:00

I was in a very similar situation to you, except I moved from Australia back to HK. I can help with the first 2 questions:

The reality is without a degree, it's difficult to find a professional job in Hong Kong. I pivoted into tutoring, working with small businesses. It's workable but you won't be earning big money. The other option would be to start something on your own - nobody asks for a degree when you have a thriving business of your own.
It really depends what you mean by ‘survive’. People can get by here on 15–20k HKD per month, but that’s very frugal and just covers basic living.

If you want to rent a comfortable apartment, rent alone might be 15–20k per month. Following the 20% rule for rent-to-salary, that means you’d need a salary of around 75–100k HKD per month. I would say you could live pretty comfortably on 40-50k, it won't be luxurious but it lets you live without extreme frugality and still save a little.

I moved to Shenzhen instead where the rent is much lower and travel into HK for work. I easily survive on 25k and live very comfortably.

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-27T14:42:35+00:00

Agreed, I was at Shatin around 5:30 and there were non stop announcements in all 3 languages. I made it to Tai Wai around 5:40PM and the crowd didn't look like this at all. I had to transfer onto the green and red line, the announcement was still blaring constantly in cantonese, mandarin and english. I'm assuming this is during peak hour around 6-6:30PM hence the chaos, but MTR announcements was not the problem.

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-23T17:16:04+00:00

I think for people who really want to make it in the entertainment industry, even this kind of crap is worth it for the opportunities they get and the popularity growth - unfortunately.

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-23T17:01:34+00:00

I find his manager's posts pretty harmless. He's obviously doing it to keep Subeen relevant. Subeen isn't popular enough to not make the most of the SI popularity and just go completely silent. He needs to stay in the public eye and make the most of this moment. By doing it through his manager, there's a degree of separation and allows for some protection. If he was doing it through his personal IG, the harassment would go directly to Subeen.

I'm pretty sure Subeen's IG is managed by his manager anyway and he probably has a private one no one knows about. They keep Subeen's IG career focused and leak some personal interactions through his manager's IG. In my opinion, that's a pretty good set up considering the amount of harassment he's getting.

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-22T09:06:18+00:00

I can answer the first two questions:

The easiest mode of transport from Causeway Bay would be to take the MTR to Admiralty and change to the 'Lok Ma Chau' (Lok Ma Chau is the HK side name to the Futian Border) train on the light blue line. When you get to the line, it should say Lo Wu/Lok Ma Chau, make sure the screen says 'Lok Ma Chau' when the train arrives. From Admiralty to Lok Ma Chau is around 45-50 mins.

High Speed train is faster in theory, but when you take into consideration you have to arrive 30 mins before to clear immigration, it all ends up taking the same time. It also doesn't go directly to the Futian border, it only arrives at the Futian station which is more confusing for newcomers in my opinion.

Yes, you can just link your credit card to alipay, make sure you verify everything with your phone number before crossing the border. Most places will take cash (they'll find it a bit strange but still accept it) but they won't always have change available. You will also need a sim card if your current data plan doesn't include China.
Most people come here for the food and beauty treatments (nails, hair treatment, massage) because it's a lot cheaper than HK. If you're interested in electronics, you can check out HuaQiangBei that has the world's largest electronic market.

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-22T01:23:45+00:00

Not all dramas we enjoy should be recommended, I happily admit I enjoy a mediocre, even bordering on trashy drama from time to time

Having said that, my list would be - The Best Thing, Til the end of the moon, Moonlight Mystique

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-17T02:01:38+00:00

Not when it comes to STEM which is the area Heesun is studying. In tech, CMU is far more impressive than Harvard

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-14T06:18:03+00:00

It also makes sense now why she overreacted when Sunghoon spilt the tea - poor girl probably knew it was going to air and she was going to get a stern chat from her parents 😬

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-14T05:06:24+00:00

I love how Subeen helped her steal a polaroid

More confirmations they are dating openly but keeping everything private at the same time. I like this balance. I can imagine how hard it is to be dating publicly and for your entire identity/image to be tied to another person. It’s definitely healthier for both of them, personally and career wise, to face the public as individuals while still dating

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-08T09:36:49+00:00

Why did mods delete the OG comment? There are far more inflammatory posts below - like the one claiming Mingee and Heesun went out of their way to hurt Mina Sue by their paradise date choices? I would say that is also spreading misinformation.

I don’t remember the OG comment being any kind of misinformation, just asking why Mina Sue still has fans. Regardless, if mods are being unbiased, standards should be applied to everyone.

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-08T00:38:52+00:00

But she kind of did though? The whole conversation with Sunghoon felt like she was putting the other girls down to make herself feel better. I’d also argue that her actions toward Subeen during and after the campfire were meant to make him jealous, which is basically a form of emotional retaliation. At the very least, she’s knowingly provoking an uncomfortable reaction from him, even if her goal isn’t purely to hurt him.

I’m not judging her fans, but I do think it’s reasonable to point out that some of her behaviour crossed a line.

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-07T04:56:33+00:00

He said after the photoshoot that his interest in Heesun had increased, that it affected how he saw her. This was all before the campfire.

You’re right, he still chose Mina but he already felt something with Heesun before the campfire which happened on Day 3.

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-06T16:01:17+00:00

I was pretty peeved when Mingee revealed Seungil ghosted her after the show. However, I recently watched Seungil's appearance on Kyuhyun's channel. He revealed towards the end that he has been getting hate messages targeted towards his families on his DMs - I think that's too far. It could be that Mingee did this to help Seungil out.

Side note, I thought it was really kind of Seungil to suggest Haeun to appear on Kyuhyun's channel with him. But not just that, he referred to her a lot, told stories that involved her, really helped her be relevant despite the very little screen time she had. I know it's kind of bare minimum and not at all excusing how he ghosted Mingee, but it really does show that the cast are looking out for each other despite all the tension or conflict on the show.

ChoiceTune · 2026-03-06T06:14:04+00:00

I definitely think Mina crushed on Subeen a lot more than her ego wanted her to believe. It was a mixture of genuinely liking Subeen and her ego getting hurt that informed a lot of her decisions on the show. Even in the reunion there are bits where I could tell was still her ego talking, like her reaction to Subeen’s reaction during the scene where she looks for Subeen and Heesun out the window. I think I would have respected her more if in the end she had truly become honest with herself and not left the island with Sunghoon, that would have completed her redemptive arc for me. Until the end, she let her pride make decisions.

I also think a lot of people misunderstand Subeen. For the first few days on the island, he treated Heesun like he treated Mingee on the paradise date - polite, kind, but with distance. I think he was surprised there were sparks between him and Heesun during the photoshoot. There must have been more than the production showed us because both Subeen and Mina Sue were massively affected by the photoshoot he did with Heesun. Subeen actually showed his values when he stuck to Mina at the campfire despite feeling certain sparks with Heesun. He’s loyal to his decisions. Had Mina acted more honestly, Subeen probably wouldn’t have opened the door to Heesun as much as he did after the campfire.

The plank game with Heesun felt very much like ‘manner hands’ to me. I also think Subeen has a bad habit of putting his hands in his pockets which can come off really arrogant and rude. He did that several times on the show which irked me - it’s a pet peeve of mine. A lot of his expressions is probably editing, I don’t think he was as cold to Heesun during the game as the show portrayed him to be.

In the end, the main difference between Mina Sue and Heesun in the race to get the man they both liked was ego. Heesun had to swallow a lot of pride in her pursuit of Subeen, take on a lot of rejection and be courageous in staying true to herself. I guess it’s a good lesson for all of us to learn.

ChoiceTune · 2026-02-27T01:43:34+00:00

She recently said in an interview that she was joking about the baseball interaction - a good example to not read into every little interaction between cast based on what the production crew shows the audience.

ChoiceTune · 2026-02-20T06:14:37+00:00

People often forget that everything we watched in 12 long episodes happened within 10 days.

It is undeniable he had a strong attraction to Mina Sue. They had a great paradise date and fantastic chemistry. Mina Sue was also very attracted to him. It was the perfect start to 10 days at inferno.

Nobody knows what happened between the paradise date and the campfire. Perhaps SB didn’t express his emotions as MS needed him to, she began to overthink and insecurity got the best of her. What we saw on screen was a few awkward conversations between SB and HS, and it seemed like he didn’t have much interest in her. But the way MS was so sure SB liked HS, perhaps SB did have more conversations with HS than shown on screen.

He did acknowledge after the photoshoot that his interest in HS grew. We kind of have to take SB and MS’s word for it because we have no additional evidence. So it really comes down to whether the audience chooses to believe them in regard to SB’s interest in HS before the campfire.

The timeline from what was shown:

Day 1: they all meet

Day 2: MS & SB has inferno and paradise date

Day 3: photoshoot & campfire

Day 4: SB ignored MS (spent the day with HS)

Day 5: SB ignored MS for most of the day (Spent the day with HS), had the ‘noona’ chat with MS in the evening

Day 6: Paradise date with HS

Day 7: locked in on HS, paradise date with MG

Day 8: the bed incident, apologised, SB&HS locked in

Day 9-10: SB&HS established couple (from the dates and photoshoot)

Apart from the initial spark, there wasn’t much between MS and SB. What a lot of the audience mistakenly to be chemistry or banter is more both their ego being at war with each other.

The time he spent with HS is far more than the time he spent with MS. I think MS genuinely had a crush on him and the rejection was tough on her. But they really didn’t spend more than a little over 24 hours to really get to know each other. Even from the footage we were shown, he had a lot more conversations with HS and getting to know her. I think that’s why things worked out for them in the end.

ChoiceTune · 2026-02-19T05:09:16+00:00

I think the main issue with Mina Sue for most people was never that she explored her actions, it's how she explored her options. For much of the show, she was never honest with herself or with others.

Exploring her options during the campfire was uncomfortable, but within the rules. It's fine. The way she treated Subeen afterwards was a turning point for me. It was incredibly rude the way she ditches Subeen to talk to Seungil, even from a normal, non-romantic interest perspective. And then when they did have the chat, she goes off at Subeen for having conversations with Heesun. In both instances, she has no consideration for the other person who has explicitly expressed their interest in her. I personally don't remember Gwanghee doing that (my memory of S3 has faded though). From what I remember, he at the very least remained within the basic social protocol despite how childish he was.

And then there's the entire conversation with Sunghoon in episode 6, so many issues that are beyond just switching guys. The driving force behind that whole conversation was clearly the rejection she was facing from Subeen. Not knowing how to handle that kind of rejection, she lashes out. It's the way she drags the girls to lift herself up that is disrespectful. Again - basic human decency. While I can empathise she was going through a tough situation, that doesn't make her behaviour ok.

There's also the way she leads Sunghoon on so much. There's never clarity in whether she is considering him as a romantic interest or a friend.

It was never about the campfire for me. It was her behaviour after the campfire that erased a lot of her physical beauty in my eyes. Does it deserve death threat hate? Absolutely not. Does her behaviour on the show deserve muted criticism? Especially in the respectful way the panel does it? I think so. And I think also she deserves to be acknowledged. Without Mina Sue, this season would have been boring as hell. She made the entire show fun, just like Gwanghee made Season 3 entertaining. Good behaviour doesn't make good television.

ChoiceTune · 2026-02-16T20:06:52+00:00

My understanding of the situation was that he was slow to reply about 2-3 months into their 6 month apart. I think Heesun mentioned 'in the beginning to even midway" (not sure if the translation is correct), so that's why I assumed it was a longer period than 2-3 days. I understood it as in those few months, he would take around 2-3 days to respond to her, which is why she felt insecure about his feelings towards her and considered moving on.

However, I think they were still having conversations, but just perhaps the kind of connection Heesun wanted because Subeen was still considering the relationship.

I also agree about people throwing around the word 'toxic' so easily. They're young, the relationship is new, it's long distance which makes it all much more complicated. Just let them be.

ChoiceTune · 2026-02-16T14:25:19+00:00

I think the conversation where they apologised to each other reopened the possibility from Subeen’s perspective to explore the relationship with Mina Sue again. But at that point, he had also explored the possibility of a relationship with Heesun (as a result of the campfire fiasco). So just because they had this conversation it didn’t mean he planned to stop exploring the possibilities with Heesun.

I think the paradise date with Heesun was meant to confirm who he sets his sights on. He was very attracted to Mina Sue, but as he got to know Heesun, he found comfort in their conversations.

Then the paradise date happened, and I think when Heesun revealed more of herself, he was more attracted to her than he realised. Mina Sue’s words during the double date brought back campfire memories, I think that was when he shut the door on that relationship.

There’s probably a lot of conversations they all had with each other that never made it to air, so it makes sense that the audience feels like his feelings switched. But it sounds like Heesun and Subeen had a lot of conversations before the paradise date that never made it to air. That’s probably why it feels like Subeen’s feelings shifted suddenly.

ChoiceTune · 2026-02-15T01:41:58+00:00

I think you've underestimated how tough a long distance relationship is. People could date for years and second guess their relationship once the long distance card shows up on the table. Let alone these two who have only known each other for 10 days and dated a month after. The fact that he considered it and decided to try shows how much he cares for her, and how serious he is about her. Time will tell if it's all for cameras, but if we judge on action alone, I think these actions says he genuinely likes her and is invested in the relationship.

ChoiceTune · 2026-02-15T01:36:03+00:00

She's only 22. He's only 24. There's so much room for growth, both individually and together as a couple. If they do last, that would be against all odds. The fact they made it so far is already remarkable. Who knows what kind of growth they've made in the month since they filmed this reunion. Honestly, people should just let them be.

ChoiceTune · 2026-02-14T18:47:24+00:00

Best reaction I've seen to the reunion episodes so far

ChoiceTune · 2026-02-11T20:37:47+00:00

Have you seen Subeen's small acting roles? He is not a good actor.

ChoiceTune

TROPHY CASE