A Hong Kong banker’s rural retreat – what it’s like to wake up to birdsong
Mingmin Huang, who works in West Kowloon and lives in the New Territories, says her tranquil home is the perfect antidote to her busy job in the city
Yuen Long, in the New Territories, might not be the most obvious place for a girl about town to live but banker Mingmin Huang believes she has the best of all worlds.
Having only a 30-minute commute to her West Kowloon workplace, she gets a daily city fix as well as all the benefits of spending her evenings and weekends in more tranquil surrounds.
“This certainly isn’t regular Hong Kong because all you hear is birdsong – and you get a lot more living space for your money,” says Huang, who moved here a decade ago, after a stint in Singapore, from her native Guilin, in the Guangxi autonomous region.
She was no stranger to the place, having lived in a flat nearby for two years, but she credits a friend for recommending the area in which she eventually bought a house. That same friend also introduced her to Tik Chan, design director at Studio 93.
“I knew I wanted somewhere cosy, with the potential for my father to come and live with me, but other than that I let Tik take over,” Huang says. “He did everything from coming up with a concept to finding all the furniture.”
I wanted to create an entrance with a difference and it feels calming to walk across the stones, which are embedded into white pebbles. Many of Mingmin’s friends say it is like entering a five-star spa
With 2,100 square feet to play with, on three floors, plus a further 1,500 square feet outside, Chan was given full control of the design. He began by transforming clusters of small rooms – of which five were bedrooms – into larger spaces, flooded with natural light.