Pocket-friendly China lures Hong Kongers

By Alexandra Stevenson

NEW YORK: Shuen Chun-wa, 81, and her husband hurried toward a green bus with two dozen other Hong Kong residents, dragging empty suitcases. They had purple tour stickers on their jackets and were headed to shop in Shenzhen, a bustling Chinese city that sits on the northern side of the border with Hong Kong. It was Shuen’s second trip to Shenzhen to find bargains in a year. Last time, she got dental implants. “You can count how much I need to pay,” she said. She paid $9,000 in Shenzhen for a procedure that would have cost $25,000 in Hong Kong. “I don’t have the money. So I went to Shenzhen.”

Since China opened its borders in January 2023 after several years of pandemic isolation, Hong Kong residents have made Shenzhen a weekend destination to shop, dine and, yes, even visit the dentist.

Tired of high costs, poor service and limited choices at home, Hong Kongers are going to Shenzhen to buy groceries, go out for meals and discover new bubble tea shops. Hong Kong remains one of the most unaffordable cities in the world, and its battered economy and plunging stock market have made everyone more money conscious. In China, a stalling economy has led to a steady decline in prices, falling by the most since the global financial crisis in 2009 and verging on a phenomenon known as deflation. The shopping migration is a reversal of the days when mainland Chinese flocked to Hong Kong to shop for everything from luxury bags to baby formula. Now for Hong Kongers, China’s slowdown offers a rare break in prices. All it takes is a short bus or subway trip across the border to the mainland.

On social media and in chat groups, hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers talk about new food offerings in Shenzhen like pastries filled with seaweed and pork floss. They share tips about where to find bubble tea including one place where the tea is made by robot. Tour operators that once focused on package tours to Japan and Thailand are also organizing buses to shopping centers in Shenzhen to visit stores like Sam’s Club.

Some weekends, there are so many Hong Kongers in Shenzhen malls that locals have joked that the visitors have “occupied” them.

Their presence in Shenzhen, a city with a population of 17 million, is visible everywhere. Some stores tailor their advertising by using Cantonese, Hong Kong’s local Chinese language, to draw tourists into their shops. Restaurants offer discounts for customers with phone numbers that include Hong Kong’s 852 area code. In one big shopping mall near a border crossing, opticians and dental clinics promise cheaper service than Hong Kong that requires only a short trip. “Cross the border to check your teeth with zero distance,” a giant neon pink advertisement lured.

On a busy day, the GoodFeel Dentist clinic might see more than 100 customers from Hong Kong, said Lan Xinghua, a sales director at GoodFeel Dentist. He said the company’s revenue doubled when the Hong Kong border opened last year. To get even more business, the clinic set up a stall near the Luohu Port border crossing. Employees are expected to speak Cantonese as well as Mandarin, China’s official language.

“Hong Kong customers spend more lavishly and don’t usually bargain too much,” Lan said. Sometimes entire families come to get their teeth cleaned and fixed.