Escape from Hong Kong: what three wanderers miss about the city, and like about their new homes
- A fashion designer and her partner have settled in Rotterdam where the people are ‘friendly and helpful’
- A freelance writer is in Barbados, while a globe-trotting account manager has been away for five years despite telling her parents she’d be back in two
Disturbed by upheavals in the city in recent years, some young Hongkongers have surrendered to the lure of wanderlust, heading off to pastures new. Here, three “escapees” talk about their experiences.
Fiona Leung, Rotterdam: “The pros outweigh the cons”
Fiona Leung (not her real name; once politically active, she asks for anonymity) ended up in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, by chance. When she and her partner got itchy feet in 2019, they thought that Vietnam – more or less next door to Hong Kong and with easy investment visa conditions – would be an ideal new base.
Their rented flat – 700 square feet (65 square metres) for €1,500 (US$1,800) a month – in the port’s Chinatown has turned out to be one of the surprise benefits of uprooting themselves and moving halfway around the world.
“It’s bigger and cheaper than our place in Hong Kong, every flat here has at least one storage room and you’ve also got the spare space to put down a workout mat,” says Leung, a fitness fanatic. If their new abode is pretty smart, their new neighbours are het neusje van de zalm, to use the vernacular (the phrase means “the best of the best”).
“People are friendly and helpful, they don’t stress themselves over minor problems, and everyone respects everyone else’s personal time,” says Leung. “This is a society founded on mutual respect. Adults don’t talk down to their children, and as a result children are supremely happy and respect their elders.