Éléonore is a first-year student-entrepreneur in the NEOMA Grande École Program. Currently on exchange in Hong Kong, at the Hong Kong Baptist University, she recounts her adventure on the other side of the world every month. This month, after only a few weeks there, an unexpected guest showed up!
6 months ago, Hong Kong was the zero COVID city, the last global bastion of Covid 19. It is here that I started my exchange 3 weeks ago at the prestigious Hong Kong Baptist University, in the part of the “Entrepreneurs without borders” system deployed within the Grande École Program of NEOMA, the school in which I study. And in fact, over the past 3 weeks, the situation has completely deteriorated. Hong Kong is now the last city in the world under lockdown.
However, I have absolutely no regrets about my departure. Surprising? Not so much when you get to know Hong Kong. The fact is that it is a more than surprising city, buoyant and full of opportunities. Especially for me. In fact, I always wanted to do business in the world of food and cooking, and I have never felt as inspired as here!
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The first steps of an exchange student entrepreneur in Hong Kong, marked by COVID-19
After a literary preparatory class, I joined NEOMA with the aim of training myself in management, but especially in project management and entrepreneurship. The “Entrepreneurs without borders” course then allows me to propose a startup project linked to a proposed destination of which Hong Kong was the subject. I am convinced that French gastronomic know-how has a lot to bring to the food market. food Hong Kong and vice versa.
After a few canceled flights and three weeks of quarantine (yes, Hong Kong is worth it!), I can finally walk the streets of the Kowloon district and move into my student residence. The open-mindedness reigning there surprises me: living in a community with people of different nationalities is completely new to me. The city is even more different than I imagined. The change of scenery is total: the smells of street food make you capsize in the street, while the lights of the illuminated panels of the largest and luxurious buildings in the city dazzle you.
In my neighborhood located opposite Hong Kong Island, you will find very few Westerners or foreigners. I’m living a 100% immersive experience with all the benefits you can imagine, because I’m one of the few French women there! This makes it difficult to make yourself understood in local restaurants, but everything you eat surprises you and delights your taste buds. Even if sometimes you don’t know exactly what is being served to you! Special mention for the ducks cut on demand, in front of your eyes, in the street. Our national cuisine has a bright future ahead of it: the queues in front of French bakeries are often very long and the offer is not that diverse. However, I particularly appreciate the small Hong Kong bakeries and the many stalls of street food : a tasty meal for less than €2 is a change from Paris.
The student experience at Hong Kong Baptist University
After a period of adaptation, I am resuming my online entrepreneurship and marketing courses. The teachers are very kind and do not hesitate to offer us their help or advice regarding our projects. After a meeting with one of the managers of the HKBU University incubator, we set up a weekly meeting to follow the progress of my project.
It is clearly a great opportunity for me to be able to surround myself with serial entrepreneurs who have already proven themselves here and this is where the “Entrepreneurs Without Borders” system makes all the difference! The advice of a local person who has already done business in Hong Kong is more than valuable to me. Indeed, it is a complex city mixing tradition and modernity, and my European perspective cannot grasp all the subtleties of Chinese and Hong Kong culture, particularly with regard to the local spirit of entrepreneurship.
The health situation is certainly complicated. However, barely three weeks and I already feel the desire to stay as long as possible in Hong Kong, just to see my startup project come to fruition. food only to get to know this city of a thousand and one opportunities as well as possible. To be continued…
