Larry Salibra
Met 2025-04-24 17:00 at JW Marriott Hong Kong, Hong Kong.From Ohio. Was doing language studies then East Asian studies so came to China/Guanzhou/HK in 2002, and has been here almost since ~ 23 years.Completely fluent in Mandarin. Hong Kong is very accepting. This is the only place that feels like home. He's a permanent resident, and even gets involved in the government a bit. He's building a blockchain layer over Bitcoin to ease transactions and UI. He got into it in 2012 for the same reasons I did: to ease international payments. When he was learning Chinese and said “Hong Kong has different weather than China” his teacher in China corrected him saying “Hong Kong is China so you can’t differentiate something from itself.” KMT in Taiwan looted Shanghai’s gold, destroyed the factories, and treated the aboriginal population unkindly. Taiwan used to be nicer but now mainland China is nicer. Larry really loves the feeling of community in Hong Kong, with so many people really keenly into the various clubs. He’s into rock climbing and sailing, and almost lived on a boat during Covid because he bought it from a Covid-laid-off Cathay Pacific pilot, then went sailing around all the hidden quiet coves between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. It’s a shame his family’s neighbors back in Florida consider China to be the enemy. China’s future is so bright that he wants to be a citizen, especially as he plans to have kids with his girlfriend who is from China. Good for a family to all have the same passport. He tries to learn Cantonese, but whenever Cantonese speakers hear his Mandarin accent, they switch to Mandarin. Citizen of Italy but as of last month his future children are ineligible. Voted for Trump the first time but doesn’t like what’s happening this time, burning it to the ground. Renounced his US citizenship years ago because he wanted the US out of his head - bothered (like me) when hearing about it in the news. He found Dubai unappealing because it's not walkable like Hong Kong is. Hainan has its own visa/immigration rules and lengths. Macau is really nice. The Portuguese didn't know what to do with it and didn't even really want it.