Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong's Kowloon peninsula, which bustles with cars and pedestrians day and night.

To go from Chai Wan to Admiralty, you can take a city bus for a minimum fare of HK$6.10. If you want to go back to the island's eastern area of Taikoo Shing in Quarry Bay (11.5 km), it would cost about HK$85 for a taxi plus HK$10 to use the tunnel, or W11,200 total.

The same distance would cost W1,000 (US$1=W917) on Korea's T-money system; for example taking the subway from Seoul's Dongdaemun World Cup Stadium Station to Isu Station (12.3km). A bus ride from Sadang Station to Gwacheon Government Complex is W900. From the Complex to Umyeonsan Tunnel, 11.5 km, costs W12,000 by taxi, not including the W2,000 for tunnel passage.

In Korea the minimum taxi fare is W1,900 for every 2 km, which is slightly higher than the minimum HK$15 (W1,772) in Hong Kong, and taxis in Korea charge 20 percent more at night while Hong Kong taxis do not. The total cost of such a journey would be HK$107.9 (W12,734) in Hong Kong and W15,900 in Seoul, higher by W3,000.

According to the German Technical Cooperation, fuel in Hong Kong is more expensive than in Korea -- Hong Kong ranked 6th and Korea 7th among 171 countries in terms of the price of gasoline. Reality, however, suggests otherwise.

Chan, a self-employed Hong Konger who lives in Quarry Bay, pays HK$417 (W49,248) for 30ℓ of gasoline at a nearby Shell station. The same amount of gasoline costs W50,970 at a SK station in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul. The difference is greater with light oil, as 30ℓ costs HK$275 (W32,478) in Hong Kong and W44,370 in Seoul, a margin of more than W10,000.

For a non-stop express railway ride from Hong Kong's Hung Ham Station to Guangdong's Guangzhou, it costs HK$190 (W22,439) for 181 km. If you're willing to stop once at Dongguan station it's 24 percent cheaper, or HK$145 (W17,125). How about Korea's KTX train? The distance between Haengsin Station in Gyeonggi Province to Daejeon Station is shorter, and there's two stops -- Seoul and Gwangmyeong -- but the fare is higher.

Koreans also pay more to fly. A three-day, two-night round-trip package from Hong Kong to Shanghai on Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong's biggest airline, costs HK$2,726 (W321,941). The same package on China Northern Airline is about W13,000 more. Under the "one country, two systems" policy, the 2.5 hour flight to mainland China is considered international.

For the two hours and 15 minutes flight from Incheon International Airport to Japan's Narita it costs W643,600. That means it costs over W300,000 more to fly a distance that is shorter by 23 km. The two hour Incheon-Shanghai route is also more expensive, at W560,900.

Is the story different for autos? Only imported cars drive the streets of Hong Kong since the island has no carmaker of its own. While the distance from Europe or the U.S. is more or less the same to Hong Kong and Korea, cars far are cheaper in Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, a BMW 530i with a sunroof and DVD player goes for HK$689,000 (approximately W81.37 million including registration fee), cheaper by W15 million compared to the W97.32 million the same car costs in Korea. You would save about W12 million if you bought a 750i in Hong Kong where they cost HK$1.39 million (W165 million), and W23 million on a 3500 cc Benz S350Long.

Hong Kong is about 1.1 percent the size of Korea. Does that mean parking is more expensive there? Well, it's fifty-fifty. One hour parking in Gangnam Station in Seoul costs W11,000 while the same costs HK$20 (W2,362) in downtown Hong Kong. From 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. it's even cheaper, at just HK$15 (W1,772).

But in Seoul apartment dwellers don't have to pay an additional fee for parking lots like they do in Hong Kong. Residents of Taikoo Shing, a concentrated middle-class apartment area, have to pay a hefty monthly fee of HK$2,500 (W300,000) for parking.

Why is public transportation so expensive in Korea where the per capita income is only 65 percent that of Hong Kong? Higher taxes on oil and cars are the obvious reason.

On a W1,550 liter of gasoline, 56.4 percent or W865 goes to various taxes including transportation, education, and value-added, as of June this year. The same goes for light oil, which comes with 47.8 percent in taxes. The tax on gasoline in Korea is much higher than the OECD average of 46 percent, while it's 45 percent in Hong Kong.

The story is the same for imported cars. When Korea imports a car from a certain company in Europe, a total of W44.76 million in all sorts of taxes including customs, special sales tax, education, value-added, etc. is added to the price of a car that was W110 million when it first arrived at the Korean port.

Once this car goes through the import trader, dealer, and other links in the distribution chain, a whopping W51.65 million is added, which is a quarter of the retail price, jacking up the price tag to W206 million.

While dealers take about seven percent of the sale price of a domestic car, that figure jumps to almost 30 percent for imports with import traders and dealers taking 15 to 18 and 10 percent, respectively.

When a driver in Seoul registers his new car he must pay an additional W21 million, which includes acquisition and registration tax. There is no customs or special sales tax in Hong Kong. Car buyers only have to pay for registration in Hong Kong and the total cost is no more than 20 percent.

(englishnews@chosun.com )