Ask garcia1000 about Hong Kong

[garcia1000]

Here's a general guide to Hong Kong, written by a British guy who knows his stuff: http://www.geocities.com/hkhemlock/mus-hk.html

A good precis for tourist-type things, I can add more detail on the areas of particular interest.

[DosXX]

How far is Macau and do they spread regular poker there?

[Eihli]

I am hafl-jokingly thinking about opening an mmorpg "sweatshop" and was told to consider Hong Kong. If you are unfamiliar with it: An MMORPG is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, such as World of Warcraft. These games have persistent worlds that people pay monthly to own a character in, and they play these characters to gain items and experience to fight bigger monsters. A lot of the items that people can equip their characters with will sell on Ebay for real $. If you sold everything you got in some games, you can usually make between $1 and $5 per hour. I am looking rent out an office/building, fit it with several dozen computers, and hire people to play the game so I can sell the items to rich Americans who don't have time to play the game themselves.

My questions about Hong Kong are:
Have you heard of anyone doing this in Hong Kong?
Are there areas where $0.50/hr is competitive pay?
Is there reliable internet connection in those areas?
Can you think of any other reasons Hong Kong would be good/bad for such a business?

[ArturiusX]

[ QUOTE ]
I am hafl-jokingly thinking about opening an mmorpg "sweatshop" and was told to consider Hong Kong. If you are unfamiliar with it: An MMORPG is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, such as World of Warcraft. These games have persistent worlds that people pay monthly to own a character in, and they play these characters to gain items and experience to fight bigger monsters. A lot of the items that people can equip their characters with will sell on Ebay for real $. If you sold everything you got in some games, you can usually make between $1 and $5 per hour. I am looking rent out an office/building, fit it with several dozen computers, and hire people to play the game so I can sell the items to rich Americans who don't have time to play the game themselves.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think anyone connected to the internet is familiar with MMORPG sweat shops.

[garcia1000]

[ QUOTE ]
How is it to live there? Is there a large expat population of single twenty somethings? Any way to get a nice apartment for under $5k a month?


[/ QUOTE ]

It is to live here. Most expats are male senior managers and their families. You will find single twenty somethings hanging out in bars and clubs, usually, and they will be more uninhibited than the average person. If you are up to par with your PUA skills and reasonably attractive you shouldn't have any problem in this area.

It depends on what you want in a nice apartment. If you want a decent studio (~250 sqft usable) in the city centre you are looking at around $1.5-$2k a month. A decent apartment (~1000 sqft usable) in city centre will run around $5k a month. If you are willing to live remotely, ~30-40 minutes away from the centre, you can get an apartment like that for $2.5k or so.


[ QUOTE ]
How far is Macau and do they spread regular poker there?

[/ QUOTE ]

Macau is an hour away by ferry. Immigration procedures for people with a HK identity card are trivial, and many people day-trip over the weekend.

Poker is spread on electronic tables at the Starworld casino. I believe Grand Lisboa plans to introduce real dealer tables. Knowing the quality of the dealers there, I think this will be a huge disaster.


[ QUOTE ]
My questions about Hong Kong are:
Have you heard of anyone doing this in Hong Kong?
Are there areas where $0.50/hr is competitive pay?
Is there reliable internet connection in those areas?
Can you think of any other reasons Hong Kong would be good/bad for such a business?

[/ QUOTE ]

I have not heard of people running sweatshops in Hong Kong.

$0.50/hour is not competitive pay. Pay for unskilled manual labourers (e.g. Mcdonald's, dishwashers, couriers) starts from $2.50/hour. There is pressure to introduce minimum wage legislation as the current wages are deemed insufficient. Pay for administrative workers (e.g. secretaries, data entry, accounts clerk) starts from $1100/month.

There is reliable internet connection in Hong Kong. Other things Hong Kong has includes tap water, sewage systems, electricity, telephone service (fixed line AND mobile!), and natural gas. Hong Kong is considered a developed country. It has per capita GDP of around $37,000. Although the gini coefficient is high, living circumstances are decent for most people.

Perhaps you are thinking of MMORPG sweatshops in areas like Fujian or Chongqing?

Here is a representative photo of Hong Kong:



Here is not a representative photo of Hong Kong:

[bozzer]

what's the local wildlife like? are there any good places to go and watch things - eg. the delta?

[M2d]

when we stayed at the YMCA hotel (the one in central, not TST), there were a bunch of fishermen down at the waterfront. most caught nothing that I saw, and a few had some very smal (~3" long) rockfish type of catch in their buckets. is this really the best fishing around and, are these small fish worth eating? how safe is it to eat fish out of HK harbor?

[Rzitup]

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Two Americans come to Hong Kong for two days and want to see as much as possible in that time frame.
What do you tell them to see/do, and why?

[/ QUOTE ]

Depends, there are a lot of things to do. What do they like? For example, are they shopaholics? Culture vultures? Marines? More information needed to answer the question correctly.

[/ QUOTE ]

Culture vultures for sure. Just want to see what is in/around Hong Kong that makes for good touristing.
And shopping will have to be included unfortunately.
So far I have been told: Victoria's Peak, Po Lin Monastery, Star Ferry and Kowloon.
Agree? What else?

[garcia1000]

Dear forums: WTF? I typed in a long response and it said my form was no longer valid. I am mad.

Here's summary points because this sucks.

[ QUOTE ]
what's the local wildlife like? are there any good places to go and watch things - eg. the delta?


[/ QUOTE ]

- wild boars, monkeys in rural areas.
- Mai Po marshes, a large wetlands nature reserve for migratory birds. Highly recommended for bird-watchers. Need to book in advance.


[ QUOTE ]
when we stayed at the YMCA hotel (the one in central, not TST), there were a bunch of fishermen down at the waterfront. most caught nothing that I saw, and a few had some very smal (~3" long) rockfish type of catch in their buckets. is this really the best fishing around and, are these small fish worth eating? how safe is it to eat fish out of HK harbor?

[/ QUOTE ]

- No, the fish are not worth eating. They are like giant poos containing many smaller poos. Untreated sewage is dumped into the harbour.


[ QUOTE ]
Culture vultures for sure. Just want to see what is in/around Hong Kong that makes for good touristing.
And shopping will have to be included unfortunately.
So far I have been told: Victoria's Peak, Po Lin Monastery, Star Ferry and Kowloon.
Agree? What else?

[/ QUOTE ]

Peak - agreed. Good views on the rare days without massive air pollution.

Po Lin - agreed. They also have the finest public toilet in the world. Definitely do not miss the toilet. http://sbanboy.wordpress.com/2006/06/
This should probably be a tourist attraction in and of itself.

Star Ferry - agreed. A good but short experience.

Kowloon - ?

Others - visit Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui at night-time for a city experience (similar to visiting Times Square in NYC)

Pacific Place or IFC Mall for high-end shopping. You can buy designer-designed designs there.

WTF? I am still pissed at how it rejected my form. I spent a lot of time typing that [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]