Moving the family from Shenzhen to Hong Kong was like flitting from one cozy nest to another, because Alice’s dear aunt welcomed us to her Hong Kong home.
Alice enjoyed being around a familiar language, culture, and family in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. As a child, she stayed with relatives in Hong Kong during the summer. Those were magical times packed in her grandparents’ house with other cousins from around the world.
A vibrant spirit of entrepreneurialism pervades the freewheeling yet efficient city of Hong Kong. Neon lights flicker through the night as the city throbs with energy and people.
For the record, Hong Kong was the easiest and cheapest place to buy SIM cards for our phone. Did I just mention phone? Funny how a few months ago I’d had phone and Internet withdrawal in New Zealand. Coming to Hong Kong, I felt the opposite. Now it felt like a nuisance to always check my phone for updates—I felt like a slave to technology, always checking for emails, calls, or texts.
On the interview side, I assumed that Hong Kong would be similar to my experience in Shanghai, but perhaps even more Westernized because of the British influence. The entrepreneurs I interviewed were mainly born in Hong Kong, and many were managing a family business, which I didn’t experience anywhere else on my trip.
I had already started developing the TINYpulse prototype in Vietnam, but I was still anxious to see if its direction matched where these Hong Kong CEOs were going.