What makes Singapore and Hong Kong entirely different from each other

2008 witnessed the worst financial collapse since the great depression. An unprecedented event that crippled the banking industry while sending multiple shockwaves through the rest of the global economy.

Since the cataclysmic economic downturn 5 years ago, there has been a gradual shift in economic powerhouses.

While the United States still boasts of the largest Gross Domestic Product, it’s ever increasing debt coupled with the housing crisis and staggering unemployment rate hovering close to 7% has certainly taken off some sheen on the ‘American Dream’. Perhaps, it may no longer be the promised land of milk & honey.

It’s no wonder that there has been a reverse immigration of sorts. More people are relocating from the west and are heading in the reverse with the belief that the quality of life in Asian metropolises such as Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul & Shanghai could match the living standards or perhaps even present better lifestyles to its major American counterparts such as Boston, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Chicago.

Having been an expat in Singapore for three years now, it’s natural to come across other expats comparing Singapore with its fellow Asian financial giant Hong Kong as cities to live in. Comparisons ranged from the watering holes & the nightlife, to standard of living, to quality of life (either as an unmarried individual or for family life), public transportation, work-culture, tourism, and the general level of efficiency among others.

One would assume with the number of factors to compare the two cities, they would border on identical.

My itchy feet and this insatiable need to visit Hong Kong sure enough brought me there. I further succumbed to my impulsive desire to understand the ethos of every place I visit and soon enough I got absorbed and soaked into the city’s vibrancy.

While Singapore & Hong Kong maintain their distinct identities and are poles apart in their appearance, in my opinion they share only a few similarities:
• They have a shared history of colonial pasts; with British rule extending up to hundred years; and even a brief period of Japanese occupation during World War II.
• They’re both Asian financial giants with tiger economies and sit comfortably perched at the top of the economic freedom scale.
• Though cosmopolitan in outlook and embodying a spirit of east meets west, they’re both ethnically Chinese societies.
• Both cities have prominent harbours and served as major trading ports.

But beyond the distinct similarities, lie two very different cities. While Singapore lends itself to the feeling of a ‘utopian’ city with pristine streets and sidewalks, its northern neighbours are quite different.

Hong Kong is a city that epitomizes vibrancy. It’s an eclectic mix of congested shopping districts on narrow streets, blaring neon lights that illuminate the city, watering holes and restaurants serving gastronomic delights around the more steep hillier terrains of Hong Kong Island (there’s always the world’s largest outdoor escalators to get around it) and true to its colonial past, it has maintained the snail pace of the old tram system for some parts of the city.

Hong Kong does come closest to replicating an Asian New York, with Hong Kong Island (the city’s financial hub) laden with skyscrapers serving as the Manhattan equivalent and Kowloon, which lies across the waterfront serving as the less commercial Brooklyn.

The beauty of Hong Kong for me is that one could witness a dilapidated 4 storied building which looks to be on the verge of collapsing if one were to even sneeze in its proximity, right next to a sprawling skyscraper and there would be nothing incongruous about that set-up. It just blends into the Hong Kong feel. Singapore on the other hand has its homogenous looking HDBs well laid out maintaining a presentable image which further epitomizes the orderly nature of the city.

Hong Kong does lend itself to that gigantic hustle-bustle city feel as compared to its tropical southern rival Singapore, which has a surreal Disneyland like feel for young families who revel in the idea of an idyllic tranquil set up for their children.

Yes indeed! The irony however being Hong Kong has a Disneyland as compared to Singapore’s Universal studios.