Heh - fair enough.

To be fair, I did live in Beijing for two years full time. I love visiting Beijing/Shanghai and miss certain things about Beijing, but to put in better context of why I think HK is better, especially to live full time (adding more fuel to the fire). Off the top of my head:

• Weather - I love my four seasons, but Beijing is dry, so no real snow/rain, no real fall foliage (leaves just kind of die), SH rarely gets snow and many apartments are not heated, making winter brutal
• Beaches - many within a 20 minute cab ride and accessible via public transport and usable 9-10 months of the year (ie. can swim), can use free public bbqs year round
• More international - in its nature. It's an international city (I can see this being debated), people are used to foreigners, global influences etc.
• Superior public transport - compare subway lines, speed, transferability, etiquette etc
• Greenery (most of HK's land is actually preserved) - lots of hiking (which I don't do), but nice to look at
• The food isn't poisoned (melamine, clembuterol, recycled oil etc etc etc)
• Stuff isn't censored (ie. I can readily get the day's FT at many newsstands/7-11s in the AM, rather than search high and low or wait until 5PM at the hotel), not to mention facebook, twitter, and faster FT
• Very well connected internationally (ferries, airport)
• No real foreigner stigma (ie. local newspapers don't have an anti-foreigner bias - try reading some Chinese papers), most people in HK just leave you alone, I've heard enough moans and groans in Mandarin
• Cost of living comparable lifestyles (outside of rent) is getting cheaper (CNY appreciation and general food inflation in China), and in many cases is more expensive in Beijing/Shanghai
• General convenience of things - many of the buildings in Central are connected via A/C walkways; midlevels escalator, airport express check-in etc etc etc
• Uniformly clean cabs that always use the meter (never had to negotiate at 4am)
• Walkability - parts of Shanghai are walkable, Pudong most certainly is not, Beijing is incredibly pedestrian hostile
• Air quality - whilst nothing great, far superior
• Service levels are far superior uniformly and consistent. Not always friendly, but quick and easy.
• A lot more fixed prices (ie. far less negotiation)
• Recreation - parks in BJ/SH are much nicer looking but quite concrete but I have not run into many public recreational areas (ie. soccer pitches, tennis courts, running tracks), outside of universities (i could be wrong). Lots of them in HK
• Tap water is drinkable
• Low taxes

So what do I miss about Beijing? I miss speaking and hearing Mandarin, the nice people (some - HK is very transaction based, people are nice but always in a rush), hutongs, academia (more scope for academic conversations), food (not just Beijing food, but Xinjiang etc - the latter can be remedied in SZX, which I do quite a bit and is only 1 hour away).

Note I did not say art/music because as nice atr 798 and caochangdi are, I would rarely if ever go to them, ditto music venues such as D-22.

Yes - one could argue HK is "developed" and China is "developing" but we're talking about cities specifically and BJ/SH are quite well developed with rapidly rising incomes, and we're talking about living... To me - HK merges many of the best things of a "western city" with that of an "eastern" city.

Also note that I didn't even bother mentioning nightlife (ie. LKF/Soho/Causeway Bay vs Sanlitun/Houhai, Xintiandi etc etc etc). Although BJ/SH have lots of charming and hidden bars, so does HK - it's just that expats don't bother looking outside of central/wanchai/tst, whereas many in BJ/SH do.

In response to one of Moondog's previous posts. I agree about BJ vs Shanghai. No need to compare as both can be enjoyed.