Mainland and Hong Kong

It has been more than 15 years since the handover of HK to mainland China. People of the 2 places are supposed to be more initmate. In fact, we do have an increasing amount of interaction. Yet, the more interaction we have, the more conflicts we have. There have been different conflicts between us in the recent years, from right of abode to the purchase of milk powder for infants. One of the hot issues, is tourists from mainland China.

With the Individual Visit Scheme, we are able to communicate and interact more with the mainland Chinese. It is in no doubt that they contribute a lot to our economy and help in maintaining a low employement rate, especially during our hard time. Various tourism and retailing related industries are benefited. It is not suprising to see there are no vacant stores in populare tourist spots, like Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mongkok.

However, a coin has 2 sides. They bring us many negative impacts at the same time too. Maybe because of the cultucal differences between the 2 places, we always find them rude, impolite and difficult to understand. For example, they squat down on the streets and always try to jump the line. Also, thanks to their great purchasing power, Canton Road is always crowded of mainland tourists. But luxury products are not their only favorite. They are also crazy about daily necessities, especially the milk powder for newborn and kids. Our overall impression on them is quite bad.

There is noise in the society about imposing a quota system to the Individual Visit Scheme. I think it is a suitable measure in term of balancing the goods and bads brought by the tourists. HK is a tiny place and may be lack of capacity to accomodate so many tourists. In order to serve them better, the chain stores have occupied more and more stores in shopping malls and on streets. The rent was pushed up and became too high for the small local shops to afford. Many HK citizens complain about it and would not like the local