Tales of two cities
By Trista Lv
People in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, in 2009 Spring Festival holiday
Hong Kong – February 1 – IJS-Global – As millions of mainlanders are shopping and enjoying their tour in Hong Kong during the spring festival, Felix Ip, a 24-year-old Hong Konger, has spent the traditional festival with his big family in Huizhou, a city in southeast Guangdong province, 120 kilometers away from Hong Kong.
“We go back to mainland in Chinese lunar new year annually to reunite with my grandma, uncle and other relatives,” he said. “I am used to it, I feel warm and comfortable when getting together with all family members.”
Ip is one of the numerous Hong Kong people who flowed into mainland through Shenzhen Luohu frontier inspection station on the first day of Chinese OX year and back to Hong Kong several days later.
According to Xinhua News Agency, the passengers flow move in and out of Hong Kong through Shenzhen frontier inspection station reaches 3.6 million during Chinese Spring festival holiday this year. The daily passengers flow between Shenzhen and Hong Kong equals to the popularity of a medium-sized city.
Ip is very familiar with such busy scene, for it is the 24th time for him to spend the traditional Chinese New Year outside Hong Kong. After his father and uncle set their own families in Hong Kong in 1970s, they move to mainland every year with their wives and kids to celebrate the lunar New Year.
Mainland migrants occupy a large proportion in the popularity structure because of the profound connections between Hong Kong and mainland China in history before hand over. Many mainlanders migrate to Hong Kong for better life and became Hong Kong residents dozens of years ago, but their roots are still in mainland.
“My parents have no relatives in Hong Kong besides my little uncle, so we seldom have visitors in the New Year in Hong Kong,” he said. “It is natural to spend the most important festival with family members, it made me satisfied and happy, that’s why I prefer to go to mainland rather than stay in Hong Kong.”
Financial turmoil doesn’t change the essential atmosphere of Chinese New Year too much apparently. But Ip said, because of the economic tsunami, his parents’ dress shop didn’t run well recently, the income of his family decreased last year.
“It is better for us to spend spring festival in mainland than in Hong Kong,” he said. “Apart from reunion of our big family, it costs far less money in mainland than Hong Kong, that’s very economic.”
Though he has to be careful of pickpockets when shopping in Huizhou, Ip still enjoys his spring festival in mainland.
Reunion and happiness are the key words of Chinese spring festival from ancient times, though Chinese people have find different way to realize them under different circumstance.
