What can I do in Hong Kong to learn more about the city?

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Accepted answer

The following answer is written as if we limit the scope of your question to "Does the following examples in learning Hong Kong's economy and socio-economic structures exist?"

(c) paying a visit to the HK Monetary Authority to learn more about economic growth, credit growth and monetary policy

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (the de facto central bank of Hong Kong) has an information centre, which is "operated as a resource for HKMA staff members and as an educational and research facility for the public." Guided tours are available on a daily basis:

Guided Tours for the General Public

Guided tours (duration 30 minutes) for general visitors are available on

Monday to Friday 2:30 p.m.
Saturday 10:30 a.m.

(a) a tour through different neighborhoods with someone who knows about real estate and can talk about house prices, mortgages, buy-to-let business models etc.

This is difficult to achieve in full within a few days as the real estate situation in Hong Kong is extremely diverse, a reflection of the high economic inequality. The readily available exhibitions / guided tours include:

  • The Hong Kong Housing Authority Exhibition Centre, which showcases the public housing development in the past 65 years.
  • The Hong Kong Housing Society Exhibition Centre, which showcases the non-governmental rental housing development in the past 70 years. Guided tours available. (Choose the "EN" button on to top navigation bar for the English page.)
  • The Urban Renewal Exhibition Centre "[provide] students, community organisations and the general public with information about the urban renewal in Hong Kong, including the problem of urban decay and the mission and work of the Urban Renewal Authority". Guided tour available on appointment. (The "EN" button is hidden inside the left navigation menu, accessible via the hamburger button.)
  • The City Gallery, while tangentially related, "showcases the vision for the city’s planning projects but also act as a platform on which to engage and inform the public about our exciting and sustainable urban future."

Note these exhibitions and guided tours only represent a narrow perspective of Hong Kong's housing market. You might want to get in touch with some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) / campaign group for another perspective (googling "Hong Kong housing ngo" should get you started).

(b) tours through production or logistics facilities of companies doing business in HK

This is perhaps the most difficult one, as companies are more likely to be busy trading then entertaining visitors.

On the other hand, different groups including schools, learned societies and chambers of commerce do organise tours to such facilities, and the latter sometimes admit non-members to tag along. So such tours do exist, though just extremely difficult to find and plan in advance to fit into an overseas visitor's itinerary.

Upvote:1

If you're interested in real estate, take a walk through some of the neighbourhoods. There are many real estate offices and I am sure the agents can talk you through some of the details around purchasing and letting in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's real estate is mostly apartments in buildings ranging from less than 10 to over 50 stories. Houses do exist. Mostly these are in the New Territories, for example areas between Tuen Mun and Yuen Long. Also around Kam Sheung Road station and Sai Kung.

The real estate agent offices only focus on their immediate area, approximately 1KM. You'll probably want to visit a number of areas to get a feel for the properties in each location.

Don't worry about speaking Chinese, you'll be able to converse in English with most agents and normally the legal agreements are in both Chinese and English.

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