YK Pao School Brings Its Shanghai Bilingual Formula to Hong Kong

One of mainland China's most closely watched bilingual schools is opening in Hong Kong this August. YK Pao School Hong Kong will welcome its founding cohort of Year 1 to Year 3 students at a campus in Yau Tong, Kowloon East, according to a PR Newswire release following a launch ceremony held in May at the Asia Society in Hong Kong.

The school extends the legacy of YK Pao School Shanghai, which the Hurun Report and Forbes China have ranked as China's top bilingual school for six consecutive years. Its Hong Kong counterpart will operate on the same 50-50 English and Chinese immersion model from Years 1 through 5, with an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme and Middle Years Programme as the academic framework. IB candidacy is in progress.

Fees and the path to a permanent campus

Annual tuition for the founding years has been set at HK$220,000, with a capital levy of HK$50,000 that the school is waiving during the Yau Tong period. The temporary campus will give way to a permanent site at 4 Rose Street in Kowloon Tong in August 2028, a purpose-built facility of more than 8,000 square metres. Enrollment for the 2027-28 academic year opens in August 2026.

The founding head is Mrs. Cathy Braithwaite. The school is designed to serve children aged 6 to 15 from both international and local families, a deliberately broad target that distinguishes it from operators catering exclusively to passport-holding expatriates.

The family behind the school

The project is backed by Professor Anna Pao Sohmen, daughter of the late Hong Kong shipping magnate Sir YK Pao, who established the original Shanghai institution. Professor Pao Sohmen has described her ambition as creating a school "deeply anchored in Chinese values and culture, yet vibrantly open to the world." The Shanghai predecessor has achieved a 100 per cent bilingual IBDP completion rate, with graduates admitted to Ivy League institutions, Oxford, Cambridge, and Caltech.

For the Hong Kong market, the proposition is distinctive. The city already has a crowded international school sector, but demand for genuine bilingual credentials continues to rise as families weigh career pathways requiring proficiency in both English and Putonghua. YK Pao enters that conversation with a track record and a brand that neither a new entrant nor a purely local operator can easily replicate. How quickly it can scale from a three-year-group start to a full through-school will determine how much of a mark it leaves.