Six-year-old Lau Hoi-ling makes her way through crowds at the border checkpoint every day carrying her heavy school bag.
Going to school is a testing journey for the Primary One student. She lives in Shenzhen and has to get up at 5.30am every morning to take a bus across the border to her school in Sheung Shui.
Hoi-ling is one of 4,500 cross-border students who travel from the mainland to Hong Kong to go to school five days a week.
With the rising number of cross-border marriages and mainland women who give birth in Hong Kong, there has been a sharp increase in the number of cross-border children over the past few years.
With their mothers waiting for a one-way permit to come to the city, the children live with their families in Shenzhen.
The long commute gives rise to safety concerns and financial problems.
