Singapore vs. Hong Kong: Which Is More Expensive?

[BeContented]

WeiHan:

3boys:

Haha, what hypocrisy on the part of your expat friend. Why be deterred by the distance to work? Overseas, many people drive 45 min to an hour to get to the office. If he lives in Bishan and taks the train, he will be at Raffles Place in about the same time or less. Tell him, move to HDB and experience the true heartlander commute on the MRT. Talk is cheap my friend. He has some big ego, as if all of this was done for the benefit of expats. Yah, there are plenty of downtown condod that are expat enclaves, but who owns those condos? Did they not decide to congregate there themselves? What would he prefer,S ingapore to be messy and wild for HIS benefit? Puhleez! I like SG for its neatness and order, really good for families with young kids, who are the TRUE beneficiaries. I would not have it any other way, expat preference or not.

Don't worry. He already said that he will move out of Singapore to work in India after another 1-2 years of this high paying job. The reason that he stays where he is staying now is because of a friend that own the old apartment at River Valley and he is given a huge discount. He is not even staying in the CBD area and only need to take a short cab every morning to his work.

Hi WeiHan,
If your expat friend really wants to experience the 'SOUL' of a place, shouldn't he be taking our public transport? Since it is only a short distance via cab, why isn't he? Or maybe he's looking at the wrong place for SG's soul eg. Clark quay? I hardly speak out openly like this, but somehow I feel pissed enough to want to voice it out.

I knew some expats during my working days.....they can talk really well, but to me, flowery. Some too simply LOVE to make similar comments like your friend, but when given an option to base (single, not family) in SG or India, they chose SG. They spent their time in cafes, restaurant, pubs etc. On rare occasions when they joined the locals at a coffeeshop, hawker centre etc....they would RAVE about their great experience .......... but I have learnt to not believe in words alone, action speaks louder. Similarly, knew some who really blend in..... When one do not plan to make a particular country their home, their priorities will differ. And these priorities will change at different stage in life too.

As for 3boys, I dunno if he belongs to any 'policy-making dept', but I have seen him commenting in various other misc threads and was even teased about declaring his :love: for his wife
So what if he is?? I see that many here wrote about hoping the relevant authorities will read the forum for feedback on the ground.......

[WeiHan]

cwc:

Hi WeiHan,
If your expat friend really wants to experience the 'SOUL' of a place, shouldn't he be taking our public transport? Since it is only a short distance via cab, why isn't he? Or maybe he's looking at the wrong place for SG's soul eg. Clark quay? I hardly speak out openly like this, but somehow I feel pissed enough to want to voice it out.

I knew some expats during my working days.....they can talk really well, but to me, flowery. Some too simply LOVE to make similar comments like your friend, but when given an option to base (single, not family) in SG or India, they chose SG. They spent their time in cafes, restaurant, pubs etc. On rare occasions when they joined the locals at a coffeeshop, hawker centre etc....they would RAVE about their great experience .......... but I have learnt to not believe in words alone, action speaks louder. Similarly, knew some who really blend in..... When one do not plan to make a particular country their home, their priorities will differ. And these priorities will change at different stage in life too.

As for 3boys, I dunno if he belongs to any 'policy-making dept', but I have seen him commenting in various other misc threads and was even teased about declaring his :love: for his wife
So what if he is?? I see that many here wrote about hoping the relevant authorities will read the forum for feedback on the ground.......

cwc. Didn't you read my previous posts? This expat does take public transport to move around. didn't I write that he likes our public transport system? And he eats in coffee shops which he prefers rather than \"overpriced\" western restaurants. As for him having a big ego, I doubt so, he can't be bother with flashy condos which many other expats like and he only plans to be in this high paying jobs for 2-3 years and then he will move on to other places where he will find something more satisfying. He needs to pay off his university tuition fees.

[ChiefKiasu]

Moderator's note:


We have removed posts that we regard as personal attacks on the poster. Please focus on the issue while debating, and not on the person making the points that you disagree with.

Thank you.

[WeiHan]

I often hear that Singapore is a nice place to raise kids. I wonder why is this so?


We don’t even know yet that kids nurtured in this environment can survive the ever changing and challenging world that is presenting before our eyes.

[WeiHan]

sall:

Anyone knows the class size of public/govt schools in HK? I heard from a student from China that the class size in china sch is much larger than ours.

When we look at what others lack, then we realise how lucky we are.
For foreigners who complain about low-crime rate and clean environment, I think they are just spouting rubbish. Maybe they should go and work in some extremely dirty countries to get some soul there.

Hi Sall, we have to diffrentiate between schools in HK and China. Even within China, schools range from low to very high standard. Secondary school in HK has so far produced Nobel Prize winner and Singapore's?

I don't think anyone will complain about low crime rate. In any case, I don't think that our crime rate is that low anymore. See dead corpses in this reservoir and that reservoir recently?

[3Boys]

WeiHan:

he only plans to be in this high paying jobs for 2-3 years and then he will move on to other places where he will find something more satisfying. He needs to pay off his university tuition fees.

WeiHan,
I agree there is nothing wrong in listening to alternate views, but one really needs to be careful about the origins of the opinion. Yah sure, your friend is free to air his views, he is also free to be taken apart for it.

I hope you see by now, he is a transient, he is not here for the long haul. Many of us here do not have the luxury of upping and leaving if things are not 'exciting ' enough. He is entitled to his point of view, but it is coloured by his personal circumstances and what he wants out of his posting here. That is a point of view that is at far variance with the majority of Singaporeans, I hope you understand that.

Was there some comment about me being a policy-maker? If I were, I would be performing career suicide by posting such opinions publicly online. Fortunately I am unemcumbered, and so write freely.

With regards to raising children. What do you propose to 'toughen' them up? Should I expose 100 children to cholera so that 98 of them build immunity, but 2 of them die? Or should I build up a clean sewage and food supply system so that none of them get exposed in the first place? Messy or clean? Which has more soul?

[Angelight]

Thanks, 3Boys! My sentiments exactly. :goodpost:


I was merely speaking up for my country and kena criticised for being 'narrow-minded'. :roll:

3Boys:

WeiHan:

[quote=\"Angelight\"]WeiHan, your expat friend said Spore has 'no soul' just becos our nation is so squeaky clean and green, crime rate low, our pple are law-abiding and don't go on strikes at every little provocation, then I just have to say that he doesn't know the true meaning of 'soul'.

Spore is not perfect, but I'm fiercely protective towards my nation. And whoever says Spore has no soul can choose not to live or work here. JMHO.

Don't make yourselves sound so narrow minded and can't take any criticism. As I have wrote, the expats did say that Singaporeans are generally very nice people. He was just saying that Singapore seems artificially built up like a fantasy land specially for the expats. It sacrifices too much of its unique characteristics to achieve that. As he said, if not because of the distance to work, he will prefer to live in the heartland to experience the real neighbourhood instead of staying near CBD area. Of course, the soul part also meant that people are afraid to voice out-meaning there is a repressive atmosphere.

Haha, what hypocrisy on the part of your expat friend. Why be deterred by the distance to work? Overseas, many people drive 45 mins to an hour to get to the office. If he lives in Bishan and takes the train, he will be at Raffles Place in about the same time or less. Tell him, move to HDB and experience the true heartlander commute on the MRT. Talk is cheap my friend. He has some big ego, as if all of this was done for the benefit of expats. Yah, there are plenty of downtown condos that are expat enclaves, but who owns those condos? Did they not decide to congregate there themselves? What would he prefer, Singapore to be messy and wild for HIS benefit? Puhleez! I like SG for its neatness and order, really good for families with young kids, who are the TRUE beneficiaries. I would not have it any other way, expat preference or not.[/quote]

[LOLMum]

WeiHan:

I often hear that Singapore is a nice place to raise kids. I wonder why is this so?

as a parent, i dont have to worry about my kids having fun with marijuana and other hardcore drugs, drinking heavily or having casual sex here in singapore.

i dont have to worry about class/schoolmates bringing a gun to school.

i dont have to worry about gang recruitment in or outside school.

i dont have to worry much about their safety unless you have an idiot of a driver behind the wheel.

i dont have to worry that my dd is not going to be homecoming queen or my ds is not the star quarterback as expected.

bullying and some of the above do happen in singapore but overall it is a small percentage and school stress in every country is different. we just dont know much about them.

[Rivevae]

There is no country on earth that's too good or too bad, neither are there too clean or too dirty to live in. Bottomline, we are not living in a perfect world.


I hope this forum is all about exchanging constructive views and expanding our life's perspectives from all walks of life / experiences. We can argue until the cows come home but like it or not there is absolutely no right or wrong answer to a comment. It's just about opinions, not spikeful attacks or who's more superior stemming from an ego issue.

If we could be more open minded about the world (or words) you will realize there are rooms for improvement in our own country too. Eg, how we as country's \"stakeholders\" could influence in one way or another to contain the escalating costs of living (COE - does it hv to cost us $$$$$ that's well exceeding a mfr's car price), ensure equal opportunity and not subject to any form of discrimination in our employment/business/school options (ie, regardless of age, gender, race, working mother with young children or not, # of certs, whether you carry a spade kate or not & etc), how we could make NTUC fairprice more transparent in their pricings just to live up to their vision/mission they first started to be? Until today I am still very puzzled why S$ strengthened against US$ by leaps & bounds and yet oranges, apples or peanut butter from the US no price decrease but increase...pay less sell high?? Unfortunately our legal system does not encourage or respect citizen's voices/petitions....so we will continue to leave it to the political elites or policy makers to run our lives.

So....是好话废话还是llls,随你怎么想都是一口子\"话\"。

[30plus]

I lived in HK and SG for about 10 year each. So I guess I can offer some views.


Comparing the two cities:
Good point for HK: more liberal, 4 seasons, more choices
Good point for SG: much bigger living space

For people to compare prices, now house hold items in HK are cheaper than SG, mainly due to appreciation of SGD. But HK property is still much more expensive than SG. I bought a condo there end of last year. It is a 10 year old condo at Tung Chung (kind of Pasir Ris equiv). 700 sqf costs HKD 2.8M. Mind you, there is no FH property in HK. This one land lease is only 50 years.

People talk about education problem. It makes me recall a story. I was tutor of a girl many years ago in HK. Initially, I taught maths. One day, the girl looked very nervous. I asked her and she said she had Chemistry exam very soon but she was very weak on it. So I flipped her book and used my remaining Chemistry knowledge to give her some tips. She became top 5 in that exam. After that, I became her tutor on Maths, Physics, Chemistry, and almost everything.

I taught her about 2 years and she went to US for JC. Half year later, she came back HK for holiday. Her mother called me saying she insisted me to go for a few tuition sessions. Since someone was willing to pay me talking, I went there. I asked her what she was studying in US. Then she said they studied periodic table in Chemistry class. The assignment given was: pick an element and find a way to promote that element. I stunned there.

My point is that the trainings we get in school are very different. I don't want to bring up the argument whether FT here are really good. But apparently more Ang Moh sitting at higher positions. You probably will agree they have better presentation skills in general. That is related to the trainings they have. So, our schools are not really focused on skills that will have bigger impact on future working life.