Looking forward to sunny climes when she arrived in the city for the first time 10 years ago, Olga Boytsova instead was greeted with falling trees and rubbish flying through the air. The Russian was stunned to arrive during a No10 typhoon, one that saw two people killed and 4,000 trees uprooted.
'It was three days of really strong wind and rain. I stayed in my home near Yuen Long, and I saw trees falling down and things flying by in front of my window.'
Coming from a place that never experiences such storms, her encounter with Typhoon York, which blew containers around at Kwai Chung and killed 15 people in Zhuhai, made a deep impression on her. She says coming to terms with the city's weather is one of the biggest challenges many westerners face when they arrive in Hong Kong - and she should know, because her occupation brings her into close touch with new arrivals.
Calling herself a 'SignatuRep', she works for Signature Homes, the luxury residential leasing arm of Sun Hung Kai Properties. As well as helping clients find new homes, she assists them with many other tasks, right down to nuts and bolts like helping new residents change their locks. Because many local technicians and workers don't speak English well, newcomers often have trouble organising their new lives, so she's there to help. Making new residents feel at home is her mission: 'The environment can be influential but it is people that make you feel good.'
Olga left Russia at the age of 26, first travelling to Britain. Asked her rationale for leaving her hometown, she says: 'It's not rational.' She was giving in to a 'spirit of adventure'.
After living in the UK for four months, she felt it was time to move on. 'A friend of mine lived in Hong Kong. She said, 'You may like Hong Kong. It is a cosmopolitan place and provides opportunities to people'.'
So she followed the advice and, though she sometimes feels fed-up with the weather, noise and lack of space, has never regretted her decision, especially as she met her husband here. 'People are warmer and friendlier in Hong Kong ... and it's more difficult to make local friends in the UK.'
