MORE than 9,000 Hong Kong children living in Shenzhen crossed the border to go to school yesterday, the first school day in Hong Kong.
They were either accompanied by their parents or picked up by baby-sitting companies, sources from the city’s exit and entry inspection authorities said yesterday.
The authorities had required checkpoints to open special channels to facilitate the children.
The number of Hong Kong students living in Shenzhen has been on the rise in recent years as more Hong Kong people choose to live in the city because of low cost and convenient transport. In the 10 years since 2000, the number has increased fivefold.
To handle the surge of children crossing the border, the number of shuttle buses will be doubled from 20 to 42 for the new term, the checkpoints said.
Luohu Checkpoint handled around 5,000 children yesterday — almost half the total — while 2,500 passed through Futian Checkpoint. Huanggang, Shenzhen Bay and Wenjindu checkpoints each saw an average of 500 children.
The children are 3-year-olds to teenagers.
“The policewoman at the checkpoint was very nice to us,” said the daughter of a woman surnamed Li, who lives in Luohu.
Some 20-centimeter-high steps were placed in front of the counters at Huanggang Checkpoint to help preschool children reach the counters. The same was done at Futian and Shenzhen Bay checkpoints.
Official figures show around 80,000 Hong Kong families had settled in Shenzhen by the end of last year. More than half were employed with 70 percent of them working in Hong Kong. They mainly worked in retail, manufacturing and logistics industries, but about 60 percent were blue-collar workers.
Li Hao