Permanently Restless

Acquisitive banker or stumbling bar-hopper, Hong Kong's expatriates come and go leaving barely a trace - at least, that's the stereotype. But while enjoying the good life Hong Kong affords, some long-term residents are leaving their mark on the city, Jon Lowe discovers.

For the expat, Hong Kong is a land of opportunity. Foreigners who are lucky to live here tend to lead a charmed existence. The harsher realities of life elsewhere - privation, freezing winters, crime, even aging - can easily be ignored. The city enables them to live it up far from the often downbeat conditions of the West and be a "big fish in a small pond". But are expats just itinerant scions of privilege whose most pressing concern is whether their friends "back home" will forgive their effrontery in employing a maid? Generous corporate employment contracts - usually three-year "expat packages" - do attract such people. Yet the city's charms - low tax rate, amazing transport system, common law, Westernized and generally healthy environment, and location next to exotic tourist destinations - ensure some expats decline to return to uncertain fortunes in their own countries. Having parked up here long ago, they feel more at home than they would, well, at home.

Taking care of business