Helsinki is the capital city of Finland, with about 2 million population working and living there (the whole Finland is about 5 million). Basically it is a city built next to the harbor, with architectural designs that are strongly influenced by Sweden and Russia. As compare to London or other parts of UK, I must say the buildings in Helsinki are relatively plan. Probably because Finland was ruled by Russia for many years, the whole city architectures still carries a strong communism flavor. The common scenes in the city are rows of rectangle shape milky color buildings with many rectangle shape windows, which make the streets look very orderly and systematic. There are also quite a lot of medium size green parks around the city, and two huge lakes located in the northern part of the city center. The city also has a huge harbor, where the giant ships load and upload passengers and goods. Those ships travel to Sweden, Germany and some nearby countries. Generally speaking, Helsinki is a very neat, clean and safe city.
As compare to London, Singapore and Hong Kong, Helsinki is not that crowded with high-rise buildings. In fact, the highest building in the city center is probably less than 20 stories high. The city center is the National Central Railway Station, which is also at the heart of Helsinki. Helsinki has a very extensive and efficient transportation network of bus, trams (small electric powered trains traveling within the city and suburb), trains (high quality train travel to nearby areas and all other major cities), underground (like MRT in Singapore, but only travel between east and west cost), and ferries (travel to nearby islands). As a local resident, I usually purchase a monthly ticket (190 FM per person, about RM110), which will give me unlimited travel with any transportation mode within one month.
There are two official languages in Finland – Finnish and Swedish. Basically all newspaper, radio, TV, sign boards are all written in Finnish or Swedish. English is a common spoken language among the young and educated, especially in the urban area, but less common in the suburb area and smaller towns. For the first few weeks, I was really having a hard time on my day-to-day life. While I was doing my shopping in the Supermarket, I couldn’t even differentiate between butter and margarine. The situation is much better now after some tries and errors.
Living expenses in Helsinki is very high, even in Europe standard. A basic meal in fast food restaurant will cost at least 35 FM (RM20) – 50 FM (RM30), a movie ticket will cost between 35 FM (RM20) – 60 FM (RM35), and a simple 2-3 bedrooms apartment in Helsinki area will easily cost half a million Finnish Mark (RM290,000).
The People:
Generally speaking, Finnish people are relatively shy and reserve. They don’t usually talk to stranger, and will prefer not to speak up unless it is necessary. However, most Finns I met are quite friendly, and very helpful too.If compare to other people living in other developed nation, Finns live a fairly homogenous lifestyle. In Finland culture, it is inappropriate to show off your wealth. So you can hardly see rich people driving fancy car. Huge bungalows with fancy garden are also extremely rare. Finland is a welfare state. The government imposes very high income tax (can go as high as 50-60% of your total income), and gives a lot of financial assistant to students, those who are unemployed or less fortunate. According to my quick survey, the average salary in Finland is not that high either. So I guess the local people probably don’t have a lot of disposable income as compare to people work in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The Weather:
After staying in Finland for 4 weeks, more and more people started to warn me about the “Cold, dark and long winter”. According to the local people, the weather will start getting very cold in November. During the winter, the temperature can go as low as negative 25-30 degree C (yes, no kidding). Basically the snow will stay on the ground for few months, all the lakes and rivers will be completely frozen, and we will only have 6 hours sunlight everyday. In the northern part of Finland, they don’t even get any sunlight during winter. It does sound quite scary. Nevertheless, I am kind of looking forward to the coolest Christmas that I ever experienced. It will be fun, I think. ; )
Note: I wrote this article 1 month after I landed in Helsinki (September 2001). It is fun to read my own first impression of this country, which turned out to have so much connection with me for the following years. I started working for a Finnish company after graduated from my MBA program, and since then made many return (perhaps over 10 times by now) visit to the country.
Oct 4, 2006
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