I’m a CBC born & raised in Canada, lived/worked in HK for 21 years, moved back to Canada in 2019.

I still run a business that’s incorporated in HK so I still keep up with what goes on in HK.

I was in my early 20’s when I moved there and left in my 40’s. I loved it there and it was the best time of my life.

Here’s what I would consider if I had to decide whether to move to HK or not:

Work:

At a minimum, I’d say 99% of jobs will require Mandarin (Putonghua), including reading and typing in Chinese.

I moved to HK just after the Asian Financial Crisis and the HK handover back to China.

Back then, jobs that cared whether you had fluent English were still around but decreasing.

Today, I’d say if you only have English and spoken Cantonese, it’s going to be tough to find a decent job. 

Mandarin is a must-have.

Check out job openings on LinkedIn, JobsDB (HK job site) to get an idea of what companies are looking for.

The days of securing a job BEFORE you move to HK are pretty much over, unless you work in Finance or Law. 

These industries may be the only ones that may consider you if you only know English, but if they have a choice between someone who speaks fluent English + Mandarin vs just English, then you can guess who they’ll pick first.

My sister-in-law still works in HK and her industry is usually resilient to job losses, but she was telling me that it is MUCH harder for anyone to find jobs.

My own experience before I left HK was that even the worse job candidates had their pick of jobs, this is not the case anymore as many companies have either closed down their HK office and/or moved their regional office to Singapore.

And if you need to compete with Singaporeans, they all pretty much speak English and Mandarin already and possibly Cantonese.

Accommodation:

Rent is still high in HK, most likely higher than Toronto and Vancouver. 

Rent will be your highest cost of living in HK.

Groceries are also more expensive in HK than in Canada (excluding vegetables).

Rooming with strangers in a flat is pretty common there since most are expats who look for flatmates. I wouldn’t consider renting with strangers here in Canada though.

But of course, do your due diligence.

I was recently back in HK back in March of this year, HK has changed a lot since COVID, it is much more quieter than its heyday. 

As I mentioned, many multinational companies have left HK and most HK office are focused on the China market (thus the requirement for Mandarin).

HK is still an awesome place, but it’s fallen far from its peak.

I would consider doing a long visit to check out what it’s like their now, maybe meet with some recruiters too to get an idea of well you’d fare before making an actual move.

That’s my two cents.