PurpleTail

Their has been a lot of discussion, and finger pointing, why the FDA will be located in HKG opposed to CAN. Well for one reason, we would NOT be able to get a drivers license if we lived in a communist country and the company would HAVE to arrange for transportation REGARDLESS...so wouldn't you think the company would have included some sort allowence to suppliment for having to take taxis and public transportation ALL the time???

http://wikitravel.org/en/Driving_in_China

I found this article interesting...comments???

MrSuupafly

The scary thing about driving in Mainland China is that if you get into an accident, you cannot communicate with anyone (the other driver, the cops). Not good. There's a lot of things that are not addressed with this LOA.

HerkyBird

Driving off-base in Subic is dicey enough, with locals staging "collisions" so they can shake us down for "go-away" money. And the cops are often in on the shake-down as well. You think that wouldn't happen in China? It would happen, all right ... in spades. HKG doesn't have that reputation, but to live in a place where your piddly housing allowance will stretch the farthest, you'll be either dependent on an hourly (or half-hourly) bus, or you'll have to bite the bullet and buy a car. Anybody know about car insurance in HKG? What's that -- you say our Union didn't address auto insurance costs? I'm shocked, SHOCKED at such an oversight. Kind of like how they didn't know that the drive to Guangzhou is more like FIVE hours, not three, according to our HKG hotel front desk staff. This kind of sloppy "fact-finding" constitutes, to me, a material breach of their fiduciary duty to their membership NOT to sit down and negotiate until they have a thorough understanding of all the issues to be negotiated. RECALL NOW!!!

Whale Pilot

Purple,

Yep, it's all true. I spend so much time in China, I am use to it! Make's the U.S, except Miami a pleasure to drive in.

I still have not found the "right" people to get a local license from. It is much easier to take a taxi, which is an amusement ride in itself, or take the train or bus. Food and transportation are very cheap. Don't plan on buying a car in China, its outrageous!

If anyone does go "over" there, look at Zhuhai. It is next to Macau and about 30 minutes from Guangzhou by train or one hour by bus. Zhuhai is across the river delta from Hong Kong and Shenzhen. It will take about an hour on the ferry to cross and costs about 120 RNB to Shenzhen or 180 RNB to Hong Kong.

Zhuhai would be an excellent place to look at buying an apartment. Two years ago, you could get a place for about 5,000 RNB per square meter, now it's ranging over 12,000 RNB per square meter. There is a bridge that will go from Macau to Hong Kong. When this is complete in about 5 years, the property values in Zhuhai will be close to those in Hong Kong. Macau would also be another good place to look at. Also, the RNB is gaining ground against the dollar just as about every other currency is. Since you cannot exchange the RNB to the Dollar, you can do it "locally" without the bank at about the same exchange rate on the monex tables or you can exchange the RNB to another currency such as the Singapore dollar then to the U.S. Dollar.

I am in the pool but I do hope this is voted down. Kid's need to be in international schools and it's too expensive without corporate assistance. i.e. employer.

Best regards,

Whale