Taiwanese writer Huang Paolien, who now lives in Hong Kong, is never short of stories to tell, including the one about how she bought and furnished her own home. I visited Ms Huang in her apartment in Fortune Garden in Mid-Levels and was met with a warm feeling of sunlight streaming through the windows and a mix of furniture styles that all seemed to work well together. The flat on Seymour Road is more than 900 sqft and consists of a living room, dining room, open kitchen, bedroom, study and bathroom. The first thing I noticed in the dining room was the hanging light, which was an irregular translucent cone. She said that she had made it using ink on parchment paper but that it was not finished. She had not drawn the eyes of the cats on the unfinished painting on the wall, either, but said she thought it suited the dining room well. Ms Huang moved into the flat six months ago. It was the second flat in Mid-Levels that she had lived in. 'In different stages of life you want to live in different areas,' Ms Huang said. 'I lived on Lamma Island and also in some rural areas in the New Territories. I loved the way of living there. It was relaxed and everyone knew each other. 'Here [in Mid-Levels], the city centre allows for a totally different lifestyle. But I like it just as much. 'It is quiet here in Mid-Levels. The view is mostly urban but there is greenery around. And I even have a bit of a sea view from my study and bedroom. 'I like how I have a peek of the sea through this interesting combination of old and new buildings.' Ms Huang said she enjoyed the convenience of being above Central. Page One bookstore, the ThreeSixty organic food store in the Landmark, Palace IFC, SoHo and NoHo are all a mere 10-minute walk away. She said she liked to walk down to Central, passing stylish small shops, cafes and restaurants along the way. 'Some afternoons I stroll along the streets, stopping by a small cafe and end up spending the afternoon there reading books,' she said. Ms Huang said she bought her previous flat, which is on the same road as her present one, from a middle-aged woman who had hoped to spend the rest of her life there. The woman had spent time and money to make it her ideal home, including installing a system that automatically turned on the lights at night. The flat had a sauna, bathroom and a jacuzzi. But after a few years in the apartment the woman decided to move in with her partner. She loved the apartment so much that she wanted to sell it to the right person. She wanted to find someone who would truly appreciate it, so she only appointed one agent and the flat was only open for potential buyers on Thursdays at 2pm. 'I guess it was fate that brought me, her and the flat together,' Ms Huang said. 'When I met her, I knew I was going to buy that flat and she knew I would be the next owner. And so I bought it. She even left me the tablecloth because she knew I liked it so much.' Sadly, about a year ago, a company wanted to redevelop the building and Ms Huang did not want to get involved in a long, drawn out sell-off, especially as she still had not put down her roots in Hong Kong, so she decided to sell it. 'It was just a natural decision. People move on. I particularly like the windows in the dining room [in Fortune Garden]. I don't like dark dining rooms like the one I used to have. I was reluctant to invite friends to my previous flat because I didn't have a proper place to dine.' Ms Huang said she believed that people and the objects they owned were destined to be together. A wooden sofa in her living room belonged to her property agent, who is now her friend. When Ms Huang met her agent she noticed the sofa and liked it. She eventually closed the deal on her new flat with the property agent, even though the agent could not deliver the promised discount. The agent felt sorry that she could not give Ms Huang the discount so she gave her the sofa. Another unusual purchase was a large pot plant that Ms Huang bought from a small shop for several hundred dollars, thinking that it would be a nice-looking decoration. When she was riding home in the delivery van, the driver stopped the van, got out and checked on the 1.5 metre plant. He did the same thing again a few minutes later. When he did it the third time, Ms Huang asked why he kept stopping. The driver said: 'I want to check if your plant is all right. It's a very rare species and I don't have the money to pay you back if I break it.' It was only then that she realised she had bought something special. It was a chaenomeles japonica, a rare species of shrub that has bright red flowers when it blooms in spring, and it now occupies pride of place in Ms Huang's living room.