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# Hongkongers that haven't been to Shenzhen in 20 years.
- URL: https://larrysalibra.com/hongkongers-that-havent-been-to-shenzhen-in-20-years/
- Published: 2026-10-26T15:59:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-26T17:02:07.000Z
- Author: Larry Salibra
- Tags: hong kong, day-109, daily

Hong Kong can be divided into two groups of people: people that frequently travel to the Chinese mainland and those that don't. You can recognize the latter group because when asked about going to the mainland, they will usually make a comment like "I haven't been to Shenzhen in 20 years." This group is much larger than one would think.

When Hong Kong was under British administration, this might have been expected, but Hong Kong was returned to China over 29 years ago in 1997\. And at roughly the size of New York City, Hong Kong is not big. This would be like a resident of New York City saying that they haven't been anywhere else in the USA for two decades. While I can imagine that there many residents of "The City" haven't been "upstate" (north of NYC in the State of New York) in 20 years, most have probably gone to at least Connecticut or New Jersey in that time period.

I don't mean this as a criticism of Hong Kongers that don't travel to the mainland, but simply an observation about how unique Hong Kong is. Thanks to One Country, Two Systems, it is perfectly possible to live a life in Hong Kong(, China) and entirely ignore what's going on in the rest of the country should you choose so. I wouldn't personally do that because to do so would be to miss out on the most dynamic interesting country in the world at this point in history, but that it's possible and not uncommon makes Hong Kong special.