This is quite true. HK teachers don't make much money, it's just too competitive. Many of the advertisements I see now offer as little as 12,000, or no more than 20,000 HK dollars. While in China that's a lot, in HK you can barely afford to brush your teeth with that. Also a lot of these jobs don't even offer housing, so you'll end up spending 5,000 or more, likely more, on housing. In the end you don't have much money left, and it costs so much to live in HK it isn't funny. You will spend at least 50 HK dollars a day on food, even if you are very frugal, and you'll spend close to that on subway travel per day. HK is one of the most expensive cities on earth to live in, you really need to make a lot of money to live there.

Add to that the fact that yes, it is also polluted, and indeed elitist to a point. Now with Silverboy everything is about women, but he is not wrong on this point.

Personally I don't see why so many people want to go to HK. I think it's all the movies that are set in HK, and that it's a bit romanticized as a city with it's long history and international appeal. The reality is that it's over crowded, inflation is out of control, and you have to make a good deal of money just to live there, and for what? Just so you can live there? Why live there, what is so special about HK. Lot's of people want to live there because they don't understand the reality of living in HK. Trust me though, it's not that great a place to live.