One of the things about being an independently-working, rather than transferred-and-sponsored, expat in Hong Kong, is that you start to get a bit into the visa laws. I've had a change of legal status 5 times since I got to HK, and I'm hoping for a different - and more interesting - one soon. Almost all expats will come under one of 4 possible visas:

Visitor

The simplest status, given to most (Western) entrants when we arrive in Hong Kong. This status allows you to stay in Hong Kong for a fixed period (6 months for Brits, 3 months for most other Westerners), and allows you to do business, but does not allow you to work in Hong Kong. Technically, even volunteer work is forbidden, although I'm not sure how well-enforced that is. Leaving Hong Kong - either for a genuine trip, or a visa run to Macau or Shenzhen - and returning will get you a new stamp and reset your countdown, but you can't do it indefinitely, since sooner or later Hong Kong Immigration will decide you are actually living here and will, so I'm told, first issue a short visa (e.g. 1 month) and then formally warn you that it will not be renewed. They are pretty flexible though - after my first Employment Visa ran out in October 2006, I was given enough stamps to stay in Hong Kong until at least December 2007 simply by living my life here, with no 'artificial' visa runs. Many expats enter HK on a visitor visa, later converting it to a...

Employment Visa

I would guess that most expats in HK have Employment Visas, which allow them to work in a specified job for a specified period of time. In theory, if you lose your job, you also lose your visa, but in practice you're allowed to stick around until your visa runs out, partly in the expectation that you'll either get a new job (and apply for a new visa) or leave HK in that time. The first issued visa is normally 1 year, with renewals being for 2-3 years. Renewals are pretty much a rubber-stamp as long as the visa holder is still in the same job. Applications are not too complicated, needing a CV with proof (references, educational certificates, etc.) from the applicant, and business information from the company. The biggest companies in Hong Kong, who employ a lot of expats, can breeze through an application.

Dependent's Visa

This has come and gone over the past few years, but as of now, the situation is pretty simple. If you are granted a Hong Kong visa (e.g. employment visa), your spouse may apply for, effectively, the same rights you have - so if you have the right to work in Hong Kong, your spouse may apply for the same. As long as you have an established relationship (i.e. it's not a quickie marriage to get a visa) and your spouse is 'clean' (no criminal record, etc.) I think it's normally a rubber-stamp. These rights have changed a couple of times, but are generally accepted as a way of encouraging (appropriate) immigration, by making it easier for immigrants to bring their families.

Permanent Resident

After 7 years of continuous residence in Hong Kong, a temporary resident can apply for permanent residency, which allows for indefinite stay, employment and other rights, without having to explicitly apply for them. I think the documentation requirements are quite strict for this, in terms of proving your residency, and it can take a few months to be processed, but once it's done, you are effectively no longer an immigrant. One slight kicker, which has bitten me already, is the 7 years continuous requirement - since I have had periods of visitor status between my employment visas, I currently have 0 time I can put towards the 7 years. Similarly, I believe that you have to have been physically present in Hong Kong for at least 6 months of each of the 7 years, or you are not counted as resident for that year.

In the meantime, I've applied for entry under the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme which - if my application succeeds - will allow me to stay and work in Hong Kong without needing an explicit employment visa for any work I do. More details to follow...

None of this constitutes formal advice, etc. etc. - it's just my understanding of the situation having lived here for a few years and been though a couple of different visa processes.

I wandered along to 7-11 at lunchtime today to get a carton or two of tea, and I noticed some digest-sized magazines sitting in a little rack by the cash register. There were two magazines about Windows Mobile version 6, and three about the Apple iPhone. I did a little shopping yesterday, including some video game-related stuff, and while I was waiting for something, I had a bit of a chat with the guy running the booth/stall/shop about the current prices of Nintendo Wiis in Hong Kong. Both unremarkable things, except for the fact that 'officially' there are no iPhones or Wiis in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has one of the busiest ports in the world - and there's no doubt that the if you combine the tonnage shipped through Hong Kong with Shenzhen, you will find the heaviest traffic in the world, by a long way. A very large proportion of manufactured goods from China ship through Hong Kong or Shenzhen, and a large proportion of all the manufactured goods in the world come from China - including the Wii and iPhone. The iPhone, in fact, is only available in a rather limited number of markets - approximately 6 at that point - due to Apple's policy of close and exclusive partnering with a single phone network in each country. The Wii is generally available globally, but there is neither an official Hong Kong model nor a price. The Wii and the iPhone are, of course, both widely and easily available in Hong Kong, but due to a lack of official release, support and pricing from the manufacturer, the market is free to act as it will.

Hong Kong regularly ranks as 'the free-est economy in the world', but even leaving aside the interesting point of Hong Kong now being a semi-autonomous part of a communist country, that's not really true. While the government doesn't generally interfere in the economy too much directly, there are some strong distortions of certain markets which have a measurable effect on things at a macro level - but at a micro level, things are very free. That is, of course, a good thing and a bad one - Europeans tend to get upset at the lack of consumer, tenant and employee protection in Hong Kong, but it also means that really, nobody official is interested in the vast grey market. As an example, Apple doesn't have official resellers in Hong Kong, but there really isn't much they can do to stop unofficial ones springing up, selling products Apple does not wish to have available, or in ways they disagree with. Due to the lack of an official Apple-supported route to get an iPhone in Hong Kong, every single iPhone in Hong Kong is unlocked - and I would assume that a large majority are also 'jailbroken', modified to run non-Apple-blessed software. Once you are operating outside the official limits of the device, breaking the warranty for sure, and probably the software license as well, just to get the device to work, why not open it up as far as you are able - rather than as far as the manufacturer wants?

The Wii, of course, is differently interesting. There has been no release of the Wii in Hong Kong, and while there are mod-chips and other methods available to play games from foreign regions, nobody has managed to hack it enough to change the language. While there is only a single model of Wii, unlike the Xbox360 and PS3, there are effectively 2 models available in HK, the Japanese one and the US one. They are identical hardware, but the US one has menus in English and allows access to the US Wii shop, and comes with a copy of Wii sports. The prices are purely set by the market, there is a certain demand for each 'model', there is a certain supply - more of the Japanese machines are available than US ones - and prices change, both up and down, over time.

The really interesting thing is that while neither of these pieces of in-demand consumer electronics hardware are officially available in Hong Kong, both are in fact easily and widely available. In fact, there are enough of them in Hong Kong that there is a flourishing support market - Wii games and both Wii and iPhone accessories are very openly sold by major retailers, even if the actual device is still sold slightly underground. That is what makes Hong Kong an open, free market, where what might be considered at least grey market, if not black, elsewhere, is just considered 'doing business' here. And one final point: while in many ways Hong Kong is a small town, with small town mentality, this is one way in which locals are very open and progressive - it seems unnatural to them that a manufacturer would - or would be allowed to - limit their markets or the uses of their devices, and it is second nature for Hong Kong to just route around these limitations.

In Hong Kong, it is now approaching 10 o'clock on Sunday morning. I had a little less than 3 hours sleep last night, I've already done 4 distinct things since leaving work on Friday evening, and I've got 2 more to do today, one of which I've organised.

On Friday night, I went straight from work to The Hong Kong Fringe Club, a small art/performance/entertainment venue, to see a show called HKID (link may not persist). The Fringe is worth a post in its own right - it's one of the most interesting places to hang out in Hong Kong, in terms of variety, and I've found myself spending a lot of time there in the past, and should make an effort to go more often. This time, I was going for a particular reason, since a friend of mine was part of the ensemble cast for the show, and I knew very little about what I was going to see. I went by myself - I knew I had plenty of other things planned for the weekend, I wanted to see the show, and I didn't want to start spamming friends on Friday afternoon to see if anyone was available - but I ended up bumping into someone I knew, someone so random that if I'd listed 10, 50, 100 people I could have met there, he wouldn't have appeared on any of the lists. As an aside, that's a normal Hong Kong thing - it's a very very rare event, nowadays, for me to go out and not find I've met someone I wouldn't have expected to meet. The show was very good, a series of vignettes, mostly monologues, covering different aspects of life and identity in Hong Kong, from many angles. Some were touching, like the old orange seller in the Graham Street food market, reflecting on her long life, and her fear for the future as the plans for 'redeveloping' the market go ahead, or the two-part scene with a mama-san and a dancer at a girlie bar in Wanchai telling their stories to the audience. Some scenes were funny, like the American tourist trying to get directions from a local on the street, unable to pronounce Chinese place names, getting frustrated at the local's lack of English, which it turned out was only put-on so he wouldn't have to deal with tourists. Some scenes were insightful, in particular the Italian woman (who happened to be played by my friend Nicole) sitting in a bar, lamenting the fact that all the men in Hong Kong are obsessed with cute girly little Chinese girls, while at the same time she won't even give the time of day to a Chinese man who approaches her. The scenes were interspersed with very very short answers to questions like "Hong Kong is..." and "What I like about Hong Kong is...". In general, as someone who's lived here for a couple of years now, I recognised a lot of my own feelings in the show, and it was well worth going. I'll admit that it was enhanced by going up to the rooftop bar afterwards for a chat with Nicole, and meeting and chatting with the writer/director, Kat Cooper, who also acted, and being able to discuss it with her and get some of the background history and rationale behind the show.

To sum up: I like the Fringe, I was impressed by the show, including both the writing and acting, and will keep an eye out for new work from the same company. Final point: Nicole on stage in underwear - HOT!

After the show and the drink, I wandered home, looking for something to eat on the way, since I hadn't really had dinner, but I had had a couple of drinks and wanted something to soak them up. Popped into a Mexican place in Soho, whose kitchen had closed, but did find a young lady of my acquaintance in there, bringing my 'random meetings' score up to 2 for the night. I ended up going to a Lebanese hole-in-the-wall place for a falafel - I don't eat it very often, but it's near the top of my comfort food list, and it's nice to know I can get a nice genuine one not far from home at midnight...

Yesterday, apart from some time arguing with Hong Kong Post on the phone - nothing particularly serious, but annoying, and with a happy ending - I went skating and shopping with my flatmate. She's been taking skating lessons for a while, as it happens in the same building as my office, and she likes to go and practice every now and again at the weekend. I've been a couple of times before recently and, well, while I can't claim to be a skater, I can claim to do a good impression of one - I can do a full circuit of the rink without falling over or hitting anyone, can control my speed and direction reasonably well, and I enjoy it. I also bought a pair of 'dumbbel balls', since in general, I have an urge to juggle any balls I happen to get my hands on, and it seemed that juggling with 1kg balls might be a nice way to get a little bit of exercise in.

Last night - and for anyone who knows me, yes, you have my permission to laugh - I went to a salsa night at a bar in Lan Kwai Fong. The less said about it, the better, other than it was sort of fun, sort of sweaty, there are a couple of photos which may or may not get published at some time, and it looks like I may be talked into attending a salsa class. I walked my friend and dancing partner/victim to her ferry, which she missed by about 2 minutes, so I hung around the pier for a bit with her, before heading back into town for the rugby. I'm not the biggest sports fan in the world, but I enjoy watching (and when I was at school, playing) rugby, and I enjoy the atmosphere of watching it with a big group of friends, old and new, in my regular pub. It was a 3am kickoff, but it was busy, loud, exciting, friendly, fun, and nobody can complain about the result - unless they're French, in which case, quite frankly, their opinion no longer counts. One thing to note: as is normally the case, there's no need to separate the fans watching a rugby match - although the pub I was in is primarily an English/Australian place, there were quite a few French fans in, and there is absolutely no genuine animosity between the fans. We were all there to enjoy the game and cheer on our team, and when a few people booed the French team, they were shouted down by other England fans, who decided that insulting them was fine, but booing then was unsportsmanlike. One historical sidenote - there's a certain irony to hearing God Save Our Queen sung lustily in a bar in Hong Kong, 10 years after the handover. Looking forward to the final next week!

For details and serious background on this stuff, see this week's Economist which, as usual, covers the story well and succinctly.

Hong Kong has a relatively simple governmental structure. There's a Chief Executive, in effect a Prime Minister in the British sense, who appoints a 'cabinet' of secretaries, responsible for different fields of government. There's a single-house legislature, of which 50% is election and 50% is appointed, but it's a relatively toothless body anyway. The most interesting and powerful position, by far, is the CE. The CE is elected every 4 years or so, and the election is then confirmed by the government in Beijing, who technically then appoint the winner of the election as CE.

The current election is one of the finest pieces of satire I've seen in many years. When I say that the CE is elected, I mean that he (no chance of women being involved for a good while yet) is elected by an 'election committee' of 800 members, who represent the people of Hong Kong. When I say they represent, I mean that something like 250 of them are elected in a general election, and the rest come from various groups and are generally thought to be pretty much a rubber-stamp for the Beijing government's preferred candidate. When I say general election, I mean that something like 250,000 of Hong Kong's residents get to vote. So, around 250,000 of 7,000,000 people in Hong Kong get to vote for around 250 of 800 electors, who then elect the CE. What it means is that, given most of the 550 non-elected electors are assumed to vote for the central government's preferred candidate, the entire election is a sham and there's no real democracy being provided at all.

There has, however, been a real political upset in the current election - about the only possible upset in the system as it stands. The only loophole in the sham is that someone needs to show support from 100 of the 800 electors to be considered a candidate, and in previous elections, the situation has been than once 700 'nominations' were cast for a particularly candidate, he would win by default, since no other candidate could stand. What happened this time is that the various somewhat fractured pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong managed to hang together for the general election, and managed to get over 100 of their electors on the committee - meaning that there are actually two legal candidates for CE of Hong Kong in the election on Sunday. There is no doubt whatsoever what the result will be - Sir Donald Tsang will be (re-)elected for a full term, following the partial term he's completing.

So where does the satire come in? Well - it comes in because a lot of people have been behaving as if it was a real election, like the people had any say in the result, like the result wasn't already decided. Sir Donald - who doesn't like the title, picked up when he was a leading light in the former British administration in Hong Kong - has been running election posters, proclaiming that "[He]'ll get the job done!". There have been a couple of televised debates. There was a vote-winning budget announced a couple of weeks ago, complete with salary and property tax refunds and a cut in alcohol taxes. I've got a photo of a polling station from the general election held back in December, which is funny, because it looks so much like a UK general election station, but has very little to do with electing the CE. The whole thing is - to my eyes, used to seeing irony - a grand piece of satire, and I'm really impressed at how many people have managed to keep a straight face while pulling it off.

The silly thing, of course, is that Hong Kong is doing pretty well, and it's widely considered that Sir Donald would win an open election anyway, probably by a very significant amount. There's been some pretty strong pushing towards universal suffrage over the past year or two, and it's likely to continue, but at the moment, people on the street, as a whole, aren't too bothered to be living in a territory with a form of democracy so weak that it can only be laughed at. A lot depends on the economy - when people's wallets are full, they don't march - and there's a general feeling that the issue will be dealt with sooner or later. For now, I'm pleased to say that I've been here long enough that I'm starting to understand and appreciate the local sense of humour! Unless, of course, the whole thing isn't really a joke...

This post got a bit delayed - sorry. Things aren't quite so bad on the work front, and it looks like I'll be here for at least a bit longer - which is good, because HK is still a lot of fun

The holidays came, the holidays went. For the record, I'm still looking for work, although the clock has pretty much run out on that, and it looks like I'll probably be leaving Hong Kong soon. Annoyingly, I am still waiting to hear from a few people, and the last applications I submitted were only a few days ago - but without any significant positive response from anyone it's starting to become clear that there's no point waiting around for something which just isn't going to happen. Anyway, the holidays...

Last year, I was back in the UK over Christmas and New Year. This year, that wasn't going to happen - mainly for cost and time reasons - I only got back here in October, so to be heading over to the UK again less than 3 months later seemed a bit soon and a bit expensive. It's pretty normal for expats in a more stable situation to head 'home' for the holidays, however, so the people left here were either those who are settled enough that this is 'home', or various odds and sods who didn't travel for some reason. Also, recently, I've met some locals, who are, of course, already 'home'.

What's Christmas? Nothing to do with Jesus for me, naturally, but in the UK, and in some good loyal outposts of the Empire like Hong Kong it's a 2-day public holiday, followed by another day off a week or so later for New Year. In the UK, most non-retail businesses are running at most a skeleton service for the last week of December - in HK, things are a bit different, partly because of the different distribution of public/general holidays and paid holiday time, and partly because Chinese New Year, a couple of months later, is really the big holiday of the year. On the other hand, Hong Kong is a party town, and three public holidays in a week is a pretty good excuse for a party...

So... Christmas Eve, I went to a hotpot dinner. Not a particularly complicated way of eating - sit around a table, pot of boiling water in the middle, dump random bits of food - meat, veg, seafood - in the water, let it cook, eat it. Except, of course, that not wanting to eat non-kosher food - or eat from a pot which is being used to cook non-kosher food - makes it harder than it should be... We ended up getting a split pot with a wall down the middle and doing veg and fish in one side and meat and seafood in the other - and then, because my friends were worried there wasn't enough food for me, we ordered some salmon sashimi. There was some worry that the sashimi might not be quite as fresh as one might want, given that it wasn't a sushi place, so into the pot it went... boiled salmon is, of course, delicious, but you don't normally boil it yourself at the table. After dinner, we wandered down to Tsim Sha Tsui, went to an Irish pub to see in midnight, then over to Knutsford Terrace for a while, before heading home at about 3:30am, on the MTR (tube, underground, metro), which ran all night on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve!

On Monday, Christmas Day, I ended up organising a picnic on the beach. Almost all of my social life here in Hong Kong has come directly or indirectly from the community on one particular website, GeoExpat, and a few weeks ago, a couple of different discussions started about doing something at Christmas - getting together at someone's place, booking a meal somewhere, going to a beach, even booking a junk boat. Unfortunately, nobody seemed willing or able to volunteer their place, it was getting a bit late to book things, and there was worry over doing something outside, because of the weather - so by the 21st, no plans had been made. I decided, since it looked like the weather was going to be up to it, to call a very simple plan - meet on a beach, or at the bus stop leading to the beach, at a particular time, everybody to bring their own food, and just share the food and company. With one or two adjustments to the plan, that's exactly what happened - over 30 people turned up, which was excellent, one pair who, as far as I know, didn't know each other beforehand, arranged to buy and bring an entire roast turkey, people brought meat, veggie stuff, beer and champagne, and we had a truly interesting and varied group of people and food. Quite a few of the people who came along were new in town - which is why they were at a loose end on Christmas Day - and I hope it gave them a good impression of both Hong Kong and GeoExpat... we even had at least one couple, from France, who were just tourists in town for a few days, but who were made to feel welcome. We were very lucky with the weather, which was about as good as we could possibly have expected - it was clear, sunny and warm, enough that a couple of us got a bit pink on faces, a couple of people took their shirts off, and all the Chinese women stayed wrapped up for fear of tanning...

Later in the afternoon, we jumped on some buses and went to Stanley, down the coast - took a stroll down the waterfront, then ended up in Pacific Coffee (the major local competitor to Starbucks) where we colonised the library for a while. And then, because that wasn't enough, 6 of up met up later that night at a brand-new cinema to see Casino Royale at a 12:20am showing on the 26th :-)

Tuesday 26th was a quiet day, finished off by dinner with a friend in TST in the evening, during which there was a major earthquake off Taiwan which, strangely, meant most of Asia fell off the international telecoms network about 16 hours later. Internet service from Hong Kong to the rest of the world is still pretty patchy - there are various hacks to improve things, but it's going to take a while before things are back to normal. Sitting on the ground floor of a building, eating pizza, we didn't notice anything, but it was felt all over Hong Kong.

Wednesday 27th was another quiet day, with... a non-quiet night. A place called The Place in Kennedy Town was celebrating their gaining an alcohol license by running a free, open bar for a few hours, so I jumped on the bus to the other side of Hong Kong to meet some people there. I had... a couple of drinks, then for some strange reason a few of us went up to Mongkok for karaoke... The rest of the night is somewhat blurry, but may have involved Hotel California, Candle in the Wind, and some Beatles music...

Thursday was very quiet - had a Curry-in-a-Hurry by myself in Causeway Bay for dinner, and that's about it.

Friday, ended up going to the cinema to see a slightly odd Chinese film called "Curse of the Golden Flower" - with sex (incest, no less), drugs, lots of violence, some beautiful sets, costumes designed to make every man in the theatre pant and every woman either jealous or grimace in pain, and even ninjas, it should be a winner, but in the end, I'd call it... odd. We then went off to a local bar/restaurant for some food and beer - not a late night.

Saturday night, stayed in and watched a couple of films...

Sunday night, New Year's Eve... went to a party at someone's place up at Clearwater Bay. It was a nice night - we did the actual new year countdown on the beach down the hill from the flat, but, well, I had rather too much to drink, and when the decision was made to head into town for dancing, I went along, but had to drop out part-way there and head home. We actually changed at my local MTR station, but I thought I was going to be okay, even after having made friends with the, thankfully, metal and bin-lined rubbish facilities on the station platform - a couple of stations down the line, I changed my mind, crossed over the platform and came home. A random stranger on one of the platforms gave me a pack of tissues, and I was sober enough in my head to buy some water to drink from 7-11 in North Point, but I was out of it.

Monday was also pretty much a blur - wasn't too ill, but wasn't exactly going to be running a marathon... And Tuesday night was a low-key pub quiz. Today is Wednesday, and I really need about a week of early nights :-)