Economy seats to HKG and TPE are going around $1200-1500 for 18,000 miles.
Not anymore, AC raised the price to Asia. Unless you fly in the low low season (Oct, Nov), then you can get a HKG ticket for $1500. It's going for $1800 now for shoulder season and $2025 for high season buying from travel agent while AC is charging $600 more for the same ticket.
If you want to get all those miles at once and for a low price, I would suggest go fly on UA to SIN and then turnaround (since you are not a SE yet so no worry about being able to upgrade on AC), easy 20K Q miles for $1100 CAD with all those $100 off coupons floating around.