Well, I called it. After three years in Colorado, I’m back in Asia.

I moved to Hong Kong in June and am now working on the China desk at the South China Morning Post.

My time in Hong Kong began with a week in quarantine. I thought I might not make it here at all. Around the time I got the job offer last January, the city banned all flights coming from the U.S. It was initially supposed to be a two-week ban, and flights were expected to resume after the Beijing Winter Olympics. But the ban was extended for months until it was finally lifted in April of last year.

Then I caught COVID less than two weeks before my May flight. I didn’t want to risk testing positive in the 48 hours before departure, so I had to push all my flights and hotel arrangements back a few weeks.

Still, I made it.

This is the place that first inspired me to study Chinese when I was a teenager. I saw a photo book of Hong Kong — its streets lit up like canyons of neon between grimy pastel towers — and knew I wanted to live here someday.

Many in Hong Kong complain the city isn’t what it used to be. Some blame the pandemic and zero-COVID policies. Others blame the crackdown on the 2019 protests. I can tell it’s not the same place I first visited in 2014. It’s definitely not the same place I saw in that photo book in my local library in the early aughts — the neon is disappearing, for example.

But when you’re in the business of chronicling change, it’s a great place to be.