I lived in Hong Kong for a year and a half. I arrived with a suitcase and an idea of what the city would be like based on photographs and other people’s descriptions. Both were wrong. Hong Kong is one of those cities that only makes sense once you are inside it — its logic is not immediately obvious from the outside, but once you understand how it works, it becomes one of the most liveable places on Earth.
This is what I actually learned from eighteen months there. Not a tourist guide. An account of daily life from someone who lived it.
The First Thing to Understand About Hong Kong
Hong Kong is not China. This distinction matters and the people who live there understand it precisely. Hong Kong has its own legal system, its own currency, its own immigration controls, and its own cultural identity rooted in Cantonese language and culture. The political situation since 2019–2020 has changed things significantly, and any honest account has to acknowledge that. But the Hong Kong I lived in still felt distinctly itself — not mainland China, not a generic international city, something specific and irreducible.
Cantonese is the language of daily life. Mandarin is increasingly present. English is widely spoken in business, in MTR stations, in restaurants and shops. You can live comfortably in Hong Kong without Cantonese, but learning even a handful of phrases — hello (nei hou), thank you (m goi), how much (gei do chin) — opens doors in ways that matter.
Getting Around: The MTR and Octopus Card
The MTR (Mass Transit Railway) is among the best metro systems in the world. Punctual to the minute, clean, air-conditioned to a temperature that seems designed for Scandinavian winters regardless of what it is doing outside, and covering almost every part of the urban area. The fare structure is distance-based and inexpensive by Hong Kong standards — most journeys cost between HK$5 and HK$15 (roughly $0.65–$2 USD).
Get an Octopus card immediately. It is a stored-value card that works on every MTR line, every bus route, every tram, the Airport Express, the Star Ferry, and most convenience store and fast food checkouts. It is the single most useful object you will own in Hong Kong. Available at any MTR station.
Taxis are plentiful and honest. The metered rate is fixed and there is no tipping culture for short rides. If you are going somewhere complex or off the usual routes, having the address written in Traditional Chinese on your phone helps.
The Food
Hong Kong food culture is one of the best in the world. This is not a controversial opinion — it is the consensus of anyone who has spent time there. The density of good restaurants per square kilometre is probably unmatched anywhere.
Dim sum. The ritual of yum cha — tea and dim sum — is one of the great food experiences. Har gow (steamed shrimp dumplings), siu mai (pork and prawn dumplings), char siu bao (barbecue pork buns), cheung fun (rice noodle rolls), egg tarts. Traditional dim sum restaurants are busy from opening time on weekends. Arrive early or expect a wait. The price for a table of four with tea runs about HK$200–350 ($26–45 USD).
Cha chaan teng. The Hong Kong café — a local institution with no real equivalent elsewhere. They serve a fusion menu that reflects a century of British colonial influence on Cantonese food: thick toast with butter and condensed milk, macaroni soup, luncheon meat and egg on rice, Hong Kong-style milk tea (stronger and creamier than any British equivalent). Breakfast at a cha chaan teng is a legitimate Hong Kong experience. Cost: HK$30–60 ($4–8 USD) per person.
Wonton noodle soup. Clear broth, thin egg noodles, plump shrimp-and-pork wontons. The best versions are in small, unremarkable-looking shops with handwritten signs and laminated menus. Price: HK$40–60 ($5–8 USD).
Roast meat. Char siu (barbecue pork), siu yuk (crispy roast pork), roast duck — hanging in the windows of roast meat shops across the city. A plate of char siu over rice with vegetables is one of the better cheap meals anywhere in the world. HK$50–80 ($6–10 USD).
The Cost of Living
Hong Kong is expensive. This is not a secret and there is no point softening it. Rent is the defining expense. A small studio apartment in a reasonable location will cost HK$10,000–15,000 per month ($1,300–$1,900 USD). Flatshares bring this down significantly. Many people in their twenties and thirties live in subdivided apartments or share three-bedroom flats between four or five people.
Outside of rent, daily life is surprisingly affordable if you eat where locals eat. The expensive Hong Kong — rooftop bars, hotel restaurants, Western food in Central — is a choice, not a requirement. The affordable Hong Kong — dai pai dong open-air food stalls, cha chaan tengs, wonton shops, market food — is where most people eat most of the time, and it is genuinely excellent.
Alcohol is expensive. Groceries from a supermarket are mid-range. Transport is cheap. Healthcare at public hospitals is very inexpensive by international standards (though waits can be long). Private healthcare is expensive.
The Hiking
Hong Kong is 70% countryside. This is the fact that surprises almost everyone. The urban density of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island is real but it is a small fraction of the total land area. The rest is country parks, forested hills, reservoirs, and coastline.
The hiking is accessible, free, and excellent. Dragon’s Back on the south side of Hong Kong Island offers views over the South China Sea and takes about two hours at a moderate pace. Lantau Island has two peaks over 900 metres and trails that stretch across the island for two days of walking. The Sai Kung peninsula in the New Territories is a different Hong Kong entirely — quiet inlets, clear water, almost no development.
Take water. Take sunscreen. The heat and humidity in summer are serious — May to September is hot, humid, and regularly punctuated by typhoons. The hiking season is October to April.
Phone and Data
A local SIM card is cheap and easy to get. Any 7-Eleven or convenience store near the airport sells tourist SIMs for around HK$100–150 ($13–20 USD) with unlimited data for one or two weeks. Monthly plans from local carriers (3HK, CMHK, SmarTone, CSL) run HK$100–200 ($13–26 USD) for unlimited data.
Alternatively, if Hong Kong is one stop on a longer Asia trip, an eSIM covering multiple countries is often better value. The eSIM guide on this site covers the options — Holafly and Airalo both cover Hong Kong and the rest of Asia.
Power and Travel Gear
Hong Kong uses the UK three-pin plug standard (Type G). Bring an adapter if you are coming from continental Europe or North America. Most hotels and newer apartments have USB charging points at the desk.
If your Asia trip includes mainland China — and Hong Kong is a natural gateway to China — make sure any power bank you carry has the 3C certification mark visibly printed on the device. I had a power bank confiscated at a Chinese airport for lacking this mark, despite being well within the capacity limits. The Baseus CCC-certified bank I now travel with is the one I recommend — it passes every Asian customs checkpoint without issue.
What I Miss About Hong Kong
The MTR. The efficiency of it, the reliability of it, the way it makes a city of seven million people navigable without stress.
Dim sum on Sunday morning. Nothing has replaced this.
The density of good food at low prices. Even the most ordinary-looking shop front in Hong Kong has usually been serving the same dish for twenty years and doing it well.
The harbour. Standing at Tsim Sha Tsui at night looking at the Hong Kong Island skyline across the water is one of those views that does not diminish with familiarity. I saw it hundreds of times and it was good every time.
Would I Go Back?
Yes. Hong Kong changed after 2019 and anyone who tells you otherwise is not paying attention. But the food, the transport, the physical experience of the city, the hiking, the harbour — these are still there. The city still functions at an extraordinary level. It is still one of the most interesting urban environments on Earth.
If you are thinking about going: go. If you are thinking about living there: the cost and the pace are significant filters, but if you can manage both, it rewards the effort more than most cities do.