Both within and apart... Suburban Hong Kong to Shenzhen Expansive Industrial Zone
After preparing breakfast for her two boys and leaving them for their father to take to school. This production administrator’s journey to work begins with a fifteen minute bus ride through Hong Kong’s high rise suburbs across the newly opened Shenzhen Bay Bridge then through the newest of the barrier checkpoints. The first to have the separate immigration formalities of both jurisdictions in a single brightly lit hall. She then travels by bus to Shenzhen Airport where is collected by private car and taken to her office in a dusty factory area, returning by the same route in time to prepare dinner…
Front office... Back workshop... Hong Kong Suburb to Hong Kong Industrial Park traveling to Shenzhen Factories 2-3 times per week.
From a three room high rise office in a neighborhood of industrial skyscrapers tucked in to the side of mountains in what was once a center for Hong Kong’s manufacturing industry. This trading company orchestrates part of the global movement of goods that had become essential for our modern lives. Its owner travels a minimum of three times a week from Hong Kong to visit the factories he works with in Shenzhen. Bridging the barrier on behalf of his international customers and local suppliers. Having worked and studied throughout Asia, he clarifies that is both sides are the same “but the rules are different”…
Morning walk to the checkpoint... Trader with offices in both Hong Kong and Boan. Wife, apartment and social life in Shenzhen.
The view from the apartment buildings that line the border of Shenzhen is that of lush tropical forest and small farm houses that make up Hong Kong’s Exclusion Zone – an almost untouched buffer zone of unintended preservation between Hong Kong’s urban fringes and Shenzhen’s urban core. It is a short walk from this household goods traders apartment to the Shenzhen checkpoint. Where he can catch a shuttle bus across the bridge, collect his car from it’s parking lot and drive to his one man Kowloon office. On other days he travels north to the office where he has staff are located. He lives just across the barrier while he waits out the five years required to get a Hong Kong residence permit for his mainland Chinese wife – plus its cheaper…
So close, so much change... Northern New Territories to LouHu commercial district.
Her office in the heart of Shenzhen is only seven kilometers from her home in Hong Kong’s outer suburbs. Ten yeas ago when her office administration management role on Hong Kong Island was moved to Shenzhen and she followed it, without moving home. Even with the border formalities the journey is shorter and cheaper than a trip to Hong Kong island. In these ten years she has watched the city grow up around her – from farmland to skyscrapers in her lifetime. But she always remains mindful of the personal safety in Shenzhen and she rarely stays longer than she needs to and is always sure to let her mother who worries about her know she's back safely…
Privileges of identity... Daily commute from Shenzhen (Futian) to Hong Kong
Before the 1950’s the line between Hong Kong and mainland china ran unfenced through mashes and along the river. Successive waves of migration in both directions throughout the last centuries has left ancestral networks that crisscross the region. These networks, followed by cross-border marriages have created a patchwork of identity and mobility rights. After growing up and completing her university education in Shenzhen. Because of the right to Hong Kong Identify through her father she is able to take a higher paying office job in Hong Kong. Each day she scans her ID Card and finger print before taking the Metro to work, like hundreds of children with a Hong Kong parent traveling to school…