Cross-border couples in Hong Kong eye home in Greater Bay Area cities: survey

HONG KONG — A majority of cross-border couples polled recently in Hong Kong have indicated that they are considering moving to other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, a Hong Kong-based think tank told Xinhua on Wednesday.

In a survey by the Hong Kong Ideas Center that covered over 800 people involved in marriages between residents of the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), 55 percent of the respondents said that they were considering moving to other "Greater Bay cities" such as Shenzhen because of relatively lower cost of living and bigger living space.

The Greater Bay Area will include the HKSAR, the Macao Special Administrative Region, and nine cities in south China's Guangdong province, namely, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Huizhou, Zhongshan, Foshan, Zhaoqing and Jiangmen.

The survey also found that the number of Hong Kong women getting married with men from the mainland has been growing over the past 20 years from 2,190 in 1997 to over 7,600 in 2016.

Over 70 percent of the respondents agreed that cross-border marriages "have a positive impact on the integration of the two places."

The center's executive director Anna Lai said she hoped the survey would help the Hong Kong society realize the change in social structure and the fact that "cross-border couples and their children have become important stake-holders in Hong Kong's economy and society."