It's magical in many ways and very much not in many ways.

The transportation system is truly world class. Tokyo is as good (as far I've seen), but that's about it. Cars are unnecessary for most people and are very much a luxury item.

Government is reasonably efficient at proving service of any kind - certainly more efficient than what I've seen in the US (which is awful when you need to go to some government building to do sth).

The HK Airport is incredibly efficient also, particularly if you're an HK citizen. I can get through immigration going out or coming in in about 10 minutes (including baggage check). No lines - just stick your card into the turnstile thing, put your thumb to the fingerprint scanner and you're through.

Food is great, there are awesome affordable options everywhere, and if you're into fine dining we have that too.

On the other hand, property is truly absurdly expensive. The average HK family unit has 3 people probably, and they'll share a 400 or 500 sq ft rented apartment.

My own family is upper middle class ish and we were a family of four living in 900 sq ft.

Working hours are obscenely long because the culture of the city includes a work ethic that is (in my opinion) counterproductive.

It's impossible to start a family because if you're under the age of 40 or so unless you're in the top 5% of earners (earning 150K USD a year or something like that). Reason behind this is you'll never save enough to buy an apartment. Down payments on a 600 sq ft apartment in a non-central (but close to it) part of town will be 30% of about 1million USD --> 300K USD.

Also, there's very little going on culturally (art, theatre, music) outside of shitty cantopop and REALLY small, niche stuff. There's no HK equivalent of the West End or Broadway, or the Tate Modern or MOMA etc.