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Hong Kong is brimming with neon-lit shopping strips that sell luxury brands, jewels, and technology to eager consumers; the skyscraper-filled skyline contains businesses that make the city one of the world’s major financial hubs. Yet behind the glamorous facade, approximately 200,000 people, including 40,000 children, live in spaces ranging in size from around 15 – 100 square feet.
With a population of nearly 7.5 million and almost no developable land remaining, Hong Kong’s housing market has risen to the most expensive in the world. Pushed out by soaring rents, tens of thousands of people have no other option than to inhabit squatter huts, sub-divided units where the kitchen and toilet merge, coffin cubicles, and cage homes, which are rooms measuring as small as 6’ x 2.5’ traditionally made of wire mesh. “From cooking to sleeping, all activities take place in these tiny spaces,” says Lam. To create the coffin cubicles a 400 square flat will be illegally divided by its owner to accommodate 20 double-decker beds, each costing about HK$2000 (over $250 USD) per month in rent. The space is too small to stand up in.
Better than being homeless, but only just.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 29 2017, @11:00PM (3 children)
Hong Kong has hardly any rural places. Leaving the city means going to China or another country. Prior to the handover from Britain, about a million people emigrated. [wikipedia.org] In spite of having had possession of Hong Kong for over 150 years, Britain didn't grant full citizenship to Hong Kongers, . A unique status called British Nationals (Overseas) was created for them. They didn't automatically have the right to emigrate to the UK. It looks like a racist policy to me.
In the first six months of 2017, there were 11 homicides [police.gov.hk], according to official statistics. That's in a territory with over 7 million inhabitants. In 2011, Hong Kong had the second-highest [livescience.com] life expectancy for women (after Japan) and men (after Australia).
(Score: 2) by n1 on Saturday July 29 2017, @11:41PM (2 children)
I spent some time in HK, in the worst parts of town because it was cheaper. The place I stayed was a bit bigger than the coffin cubicles, but not by much.
The chances of being murdered to death in HK is pretty slim, it's definitely the safest and most convenient city to travel around that ive ever been to. And like you said, there is no 'rural' or area not in the city.
Another example that im familiar with is the UK, if you don't want to live in the city, but your job is still there... Especially in London, be prepared to travel at least an hour each way to get slightly cheaper cost of living and a larger home, but the costs and living standards will be sacrificed through travel cost and time. So you end up in the same situation financially and emotionally, since you're stuck in your car for at least 2 hours every day, maybe 4 if there's a lot of traffic, which is not unusual in London.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @01:04AM
i will kill you until you die from it!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 30 2017, @03:51AM
Yes, statistically speaking, you're only murdered to injury in HK.