Moscow is the world’s most expensive city for expatriates for the third consecutive year, according to the latest Cost of Living Survey from Mercer.
Mercer’s survey is arguably the world’s most comprehensive cost of living survey and is used to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.
The survery covers 143 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.
Top 10 most expensive cities in 2008
Moscow (Russia), Tokyo (Japan), London (UK), Oslo (Norway), Seoul (South Korea), Hong Kong (China), Copenhagen (Denmark), Geneva (Switzerland), Zurich (Switzerland) and Milan (Italy).
Surprisingly US have only one city in the top 50 (New York at 22nd)… and Canada don’t even make it into top 50. Perhaps we should migrate to that region instead lol.
A group of former South Korean elite soldiers slaughtered live pheasants, Japan’s national bird, outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul last Thursday (July 17) in protest against Japan’s sovereignty claim on Liancourt Rocks. Video below…
The Liancourt Rocks are a group of small islets in waters between Japan and Korea; the islets are also known as Dokdo in Korean or Takeshima in Japanese. Both nations are claiming sovereignty over the islands… and the dispute heated up recently following Japan’s fresh claim of ownership in their textbook guidelines.
The South Koreans protested heavily as expected, and I don’t blame them for doing so. However, cruelly slaughtering live birds in public? That’s too much.
Most foreigners don’t have enough knowledge on who actually owns the island. We can only learn a bit of the story from news and websites; and this kind of bird-killing gimmick certainly won’t go well in global opinions… it achieved nothing besides showing the world a bad image of South Koreans.
Popular Korean comedian/host Yoo Jae-suk and TV announcer Na Kyung-eun tied their knots on July 6 at Shilla Hotel in Seoul. Congrats to the couple.
The newly weds, Yoo Jae-suk and Na Kyung-eun
The celebrity guests that attended their wedding ceremony could rival the red carpet show of any major award presentation events; some of the stars… Read the rest of this post »
Korean singer Kim Jang-hoon collapsed on stage during a live performance on June 28; he managed to regain his conciousness in a short while and was sent to hospital for treatment. Reports suggested that he has overworked himself and requires plenty of rest to recover from exhaustion.
Kim Jang-hoon collapsed on stage (Image from Newsen)
Kim Jang-hoon is not the first Korean artist admitted to hospital for overworking recently; just a week ago rapper MC Mong was hospitalised for exhaustion too… and cases like these happen a bit too often in Korean entertainment world.
The hardworking South Koreans
In fact, lots of other Koreans are facing overworking problems too. Forbes released a report last month that South Koreans work the longest hours per year (among 32 researched countries)… they work on average 2,357 hours per year (six-and-a-half hours daily), almost doubled the Dutch at the bottom (1,391 hours per year).
Considering that Seoul is the most expensive city to live in Asia, I can understand the need for them to work hard… but nothing matters more than health (and ultimately life); they need to enjoy their lives a little bit more.
The director and leading stars of upcoming Chinese movie “Red Cliff” are promoting the movie in Korea. Director John Woo and actors Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Chang Chen and actress Lin Zhi Ling met the press in Seoul on June 25.
(L-R) Chang Chen, Tony Leung, John Woo, Takeshi Kaneshiro. Lin Zhi Ling
