it is such a big topic to discuss!
How about start from you and we will add it on? When did you come and why you left? How is your life in HK? What was your memory about Canada? Which part of Canada you used to live? if you read other forum, you can see the life is very different from Vancouver, Canada or Calagary.
Hi cccaaa,
I have been in Canada for a loooooonnnnnggggg time.
Things have changed subtlely, but not sure where to start.
Not sure where your were from, but I live in Toronto and can only tell you about Toronto.
Housing has definitely gone up, way up, than 10 years ago. For example, a 2000 sq ft house in Markham used to cost about CAD$300K, but now, it will be close to $400-$450K, depending on its age.
Gas has gone up too. In 1997, the gas was about 45-50 cents per litre, but now, it is always over 85cents and sometimes over $1.
Weather has been warmer, especially this year. So far, there is NO SNOW at all in Toronto. Maybe some flurries for a day but disappear very quickly.
The local Canadians are more stylish now than 10 years ago, but still not as stylish than those in HK.
Employment has been the best this year, only 6%. IT field is still good, but I cannot speak for the other job categories.
Chinese immigrants are mostly from mainland, as oppose from HK...
I also in Toronto before. Your message is more loyally. Read over and think, please tell me you love Toronto or not. Do you want to go back your country (e.g. HK)
cccaaa,
Since I only been here for 3years, I cannot tell you how the life change for the last 10years, however, I just wonder do you regret to go back? Perhaps let me share my life in this 3years.
We came here as skills immigrants and no friends or relatives. We stayed in hotel when we first landed, then look for housing, familiar with public transportation and jobs opportunities, it took us a while!
To get the first job is never easy and the paid is really bad, but we just hold on it till we found another one. Now 3 years back, we have our house, our car and we both working in the field which belongs to us. My daughter is 4 yrs old and expecting the 2nd one in JUN.
If you ask me if I want to go back to HK, it is NO. Our life is pretty much the same if we are in HK, both working and have the child in daycare, but the best thing I value this country is people value family life. We only work 5days and there is lots of activities for children. I just sign up a gymnastic class and ice-skating class for my daughter for this winter. I was thinking to send her to ballet as she is crazy about ballent after watching the cartoon recently, however, she said she is happy to dance at home as I just bought her a DVD about ballet dancing, so I just go for her wish. Besides, there is drama, music, soccer....any activities you can name for children and I feel children are very lucky to be in this country. All those classes are organised by govt organisation and it is not that expensive and I can see how excited my daughter to go for each class.
I dont say the public school is fantastic here, but for me, I just want my child to be happy when she grows up. If she is smart, she will be smart regardless which school she went to. I dont like to push her too hard on anything and we are just finished our 2 weeks vacation by staying home. We dont feel bored at all and we just play games (cards, computer games, UNO and domino...) I doubt we can do it in HK as the culture will force you out of the house.
Have a good living stardard and enough income to support. Is it still like living in HK? Too much HK people in Toronto? Speak Cantonese? Higher goods price? Noise? Higher rental for house? Too much like living in HK??
NO. If you have good income, I will say the life is better than in HK as you can live in a bigger house, have your car, better environment…. HK is too crowd and you need to be very rich in order to have your own house (which mean front and back yard). You make more money in HK, but you also have more stressful job plus longer working hours. I work 5days-week and very flexible working hours as I can leave my work at 4pm in order to pick up my daughter from daycare. My boss is not that mean if I really need to leave earlier or take day off due to my daughter and I doubt HK boss will respect me as much as here.
Too much HK people? It depends on where you go. I live in Vancouver where I think 40% are Chinese and the ratio should be much higher than in Toronto. Richmond here, yes, majority Chinese. North Vancouver, majority gwailo…I live in Burnaby, it is mixed. I have few Chinese neigbour but since they brought up here, they are no different than gwailo.
Noise…it depends on where you live. City, yes, but not the place I live. I can hear birds singing in the morning.
High rental place, yes, in the city. The further outside the city, the cheaper you get.
High goods price, yes, HK is the shopping paradise but if you live longer, you will find the way to get things cheap. The $1 shop is very cheap here and sometimes I think it is even than HK.
Too much like living in HK. It depends on how you want to live. If you watch Chinese TV, eat in Chinese restaurant and shop in Chinatown, then what you expect. Otherwise, Canada is very diverse in terms of cultures and it is rare to find any place in the world like that. There is so many festival, Greek, Italian, Indian, Chinese, Africa, Romania…. You will never find that in HK.
Toronto vs Vancouver, it is hard to say where to live is better, but since I am in Vancouver, I like here. But if you are looking for job opportunities, obviously Toronto has better chance as we hardly has any big companies here. Other than that, Vancouver get the best weather as we don’t need air conditional and we rarely have snow…however, this winter is exceptional as we have 2 snow storm so far!
You seems very negative toward Canada, but I will say if you can make good money here, it is a good place to live as you will enjoy different culture...not just Chinese.
My background is similar to Yukimommy and have been here for long time.
Agree with xother that depending on where you live and hang out, I won't say there are a lot of Chinese. I live in Richmond Hill and I would say 20% of my neigbhour are Chinese.
I seldom go to Chinese shopping malls to avoid the crowd. There are more and more strip malls (little one) having Chinese restaurants. Richmond Court (Nan Yuen) has one in McCowan now.
Living cost... well, depends where you live, what kind of living standard you are looking for. I think it's easier to have simple life here. No one cares what brand name of clothes you wear here, whether that is the most update style, etc. I feel pretty comfortable living here.
the quality of living in here is for sure better than HK la. Though the cost of living has gone up since 10 years ago, it is still cheaper than in HK if you want to keep the same quality.
Wages has gone up in recent years, and tax is slowing coming down. I heard that beginning this fiscal year, husband and wife and "share income" when submit the tax claim, rather than separate as in the past years. This effectively reduce the tax rate for the family.
I like the multiculturalism in Canada. I speak cantonese only when I do grocery shopping and go to church, but I speak English all the time. All my clients are non-chinese (it just happens that way), and my colleagues are jews. In my daughter's school, I mingle with all chinese (cantonese and mandarin), italians, jewish, indian, korean, iran etc. Because most people are immigrants in Canada, no one will see you as weird to have another cultural background, an excellent environment to raise kids here. They get to appreciate other culture, and yet and keep their heritage. A lot of my daughter's classmates speaks another mother-tongue.
In general, I like living here. A balanced family-life is very well respected here, in general.
Employement? Well, if you have skills and speak good english, you can always find a job. Whether you can get to the top (i.e. beyond manager level), is another story. It certainly is easier than in 10 years ago. I found that it is easier for those who are educated here than those who immgrate recently. I guess for us who receive education here, they started off from the bottom just like everyone else in Canada and we have accumulated a lot of Canadian experience, which gives us a lot of advantages.
Going back to HK is not easy. We have friends, family and careers here. I see no reason for us to move at the moment. Perhaps when I retired, I may spend the winter there....
mine will be diff. all along i've been in HK, so get used to HK style already. when I came here, the first thing is to have the Chinese TV channel..
I do shop in the chinese grocery stores to get all sort of chinese ingredients to make my chinese food.
especially my 99 is staying with us now. we have "dim sum" every day..
living costs - like poohpoohmama & Xother said, depends on what kind of living standard you are looking for. can be a lots or can be little..
but one thing is that - we save a lot on clothing, as I don't need to dress up to work...always smart casual... no high heel...
workwise - only 5 days a week, seldom overtime... work stress and pressure is far less than in HK, -> that's how I have time to surf the BK site during office hours le..
I really want to back to Canada, but I worry several things : tax; job finding; living place; communication; how to re-start the life in CA; big diff style in HK in order to change idling; no helping.....etc
cccaaa,
Start a new life is never easy. Just wonder why you want to come back if you have given up in the past?
Are you not happy about the life in HK? Do you have any kids? Your age, your professional and family factor are very critical for you to move. Having citizenship doesnt mean you can live happily in Canada.
if you have been here before, educated here and had some working experiecne in canada, guess you should be o.k. to find a job.. even for us - the new comer, could get one, so does you.
living place - if you lived in condo, there will be of no diff in HK, still have the club house for you to do the gym, swiming, sauna etc. and have all the restuarants and shops on the ground level to ease your life, if you don't like cooking. supermarket are always on closed by. in the past, we just walk to the supermarket for foods...
communication - for me, I seldom speak english - it all depends on what group of people you are with. for me - mainly chinese, so no communication barriers
life style - as I said, i watch Chinese TV, listen to Chinese channel (for radio), and reading chinese newspaper. make no diff from HK...
old people like me could still cope with the life here - not to mention young people like you... should have no problem lor.
tax - of course, the tax rate is far higher than in HK. but in reverse, the living standard is better same as the benefit... so everything counts...
i had discussion with my HK friend yesterday, people making HK$9K/month could raise a family of 4, while people making HK$100K still complaining they don't have enough to spend..(of course they send their kids to private school, living in a luxary house)
so here in toronto, the min salary is CA$7.5/hr (i guessed) and so far I knew most people got their first job for $18 - 20K/year (to work for chinese boss) and around $25-30K for western boss.
people could find their way out to survive with their income... so no worry. :lol:
cccaaa,
It is interesting to see you asking that question? How much income can support a family in HK?
As I said before, moving to a new country is not easy and you need to consider your age, professional and your family intention.
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