Hong Kongers turn to the mainland

Shopping malls in Shenzhen are swamped with Hong Kong residents on weekends

HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Where Hong Kong residents once feared for their homeland's future under Chinese rule, there is now a growing trend towards cross-border interaction between the territory and it's mainland parent.

Tourism alone is not driving this two-way flow. As Hong Kong's economy suffers, the mainland booms, and the territory's unemployed and new graduates look to China for jobs.

Almost two decades ago when Britain agreed to hand control of Hong Kong back to China, many residents of the territory feared for their homeland's future.

After the crackdown on demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, the hottest topic in the British colony became migration to foreign countries such as Canada and Australia ahead of the 1997 handover.

Throughout the 1980s and early 90s, an immeasurable number of people emigrated overseas despite Beijing's promise to keep Hong Kong as an autonomous Special Administrative Region (SAR) with its own laws and freedoms until 2047.

But five years have passed since the handover, and the public attitude towards mainland China has shifted in recent years thanks to growing cross-border interaction between the two societies.

Tourist attractions on both sides

RESOURCES Photo gallery: 1997-2002 through the lens  Timeline: Five years under Chinese rule    IN-DEPTH One Country Two Systems: 5 Years On

"I go to Shenzhen every couple of months or so," says 56-year-old homemaker Yau Shuk-mei, "it's cheap for shopping and dining."

The border city of Shenzhen, less than an hour's train-ride from Hong Kong, is swamped with SAR travelers.

Yau, whose husband also crosses the border three or four times a year for lychee picking and meat feasts in the southern province of Guandong, says that some of her retired friends own homes on the mainland and commute to Hong Kong on regular basis.

According to Hong Kong's Planning Department, cross-border trips made by the SAR's 6.8 million citizens reached 117 million in 2001, more than three times the 1990 figure. The department projects that figure may rise to 300 million by 2020.

And the tourists' movements are not one-way.

Today Hong Kong's bustling city center and tourist spots are regularly flooded with affluent mainlanders.

Hong Kong's Tourism Board says the region's largest source market for tourism in the past eight years has been the mainland. More than half a million mainlanders visited the SAR in April alone.

The board predicts the number of mainland tourists will surpass the five million mark this year, five times as many as ten years ago.

Go north, young men!

Hong Kong's unemployment rate is at a record high

Hong Kong's hard-hit economy and its record unemployment figures are also contributing to the increased traffic between China and the SAR.

Many new college graduates, seasoned professionals and a quarter of a million unemployed jobseekers are now looking north, trying to cultivate a share of China's booming economy.

A Hong Kong City University survey showed that of the 2,690 respondents, more than 70 percent who were employed Hong Kongers were willing to work in the mainland even though they would face a 10 to 20 percent salary cut.

To encourage jobseekers to head north, Hong Kong's Labor Department has launched a project to help SAR citizens find jobs in the mainland.

Human resource consultancies regularly hold job fairs in Hong Kong, offering a wide range of job opportunities in the mainland from entry level to senior management positions, attracting thousands of applications.

A recent survey conducted by the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department shows nearly six percent of the SAR's population of employed residents works mostly in the mainland.

As the former British colony marks its fifth anniversary under Chinese rule, the SAR government and the mainland authorities are trying to push the trend further by improving the cross-border link and its accessibility.

Discussions are underway on more road and rail transport links.

A new six-lane road bridge between Hong Kong and Guandong province is expected to start operating in three to four years' time to smooth the traffic between Shenzhen and the SAR while officials are considering keeping the borders open around-the-clock.