In February, Hong Kongers’ trips to Shenzhen hit a new high for the month since records began in 1984.
Photographer: Gilles Sabrie/BloombergYoung Hong Kongers Who Defied Xi Are Now Partying in China
A record number of residents are flocking to Shenzhen for cheap food and a good time, accelerating an integration once rejected by the city’s freedom-loving youth.
In 2019, Leung joined a Hong Kong movement to boycott Chinese-owned restaurants like many protesters opposing President Xi Jinping’s encroachment of the former British colony. Now she and her peers regularly go out of their way to the neighboring mainland city of Shenzhen for cheap food and massages.
“Hong Kong used to have freedom,” said Leung, who asked to use only her last name because she joined what authorities deem as illegal protests. “Now it’s lost all that. So why wouldn’t I go to mainland China, where at least things are cheaper?”