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Shirley Zhao

Six-year-old Ma Ho-chun and her sister, seven-year-old Ma Wang-ka, spent 2-1/2 hours getting to their school in Wong Tai Sin yesterday from their home in Shenzhen on the first day of the new school year.
But they only got a chance to have breakfast almost four hours after they woke up at 6am.
"It's only 6 o'clock. Who gets up so early?" Ho-chun complained weakly while yawning as she got up and sat on her bed with her eyes closed. The alarm clock in the room was blasting Helping Twilight Win the Crown, a song from children's film, My Little Pony Equestria Girls.
Yesterday was Ho-chun's first day at primary school and Wang-ka's first day in Primary Two. They were among some 25,000 children living on the mainland who will cross the border every day to attend Hong Kong schools.

Watch: The long commute: how two young students travel over 2 hours from Shenzhen to Hong Kong every day for school
In just 15 minutes, they got ready and each drank a bottle of milk, before rushing out with their mother.
"Sister, I want to go to the snack store in our school and buy three sausages," Ho-chun told Wang-ka in their mother's car as they sped to the border control point.
They arrived at the Futian crossing at 6.35am, joining hundreds of children and parents hurrying to cross the border for school in Hong Kong. After about one hour of hassle, the sisters finally got on their school bus.
The youngsters, who were all excited and talkative on Monday evening, were drowsy and quiet on the bus. Some of their schoolmates fell asleep and two vomited, prompting panic for a short while.

They arrived at Baptist Rainbow Primary School just in time for morning assembly at 8.25am. They only had some solid food - a piece of pork-filled bread - during a break at 9.45am.
Xie Ruiling, the caretaker of the 38 pupils on the bus, said some children who lived further from the border needed to wake up at 5.30am. She added that the first day of school was always chaotic because new pupils and their parents were often clueless about what to do at the border and she had to be extra careful in case anyone got lost in the crowds.
“Children sometimes told me they didn't have breakfast and asked me if they could eat on the bus,” said Xie.
Huang Xuan, their mother, said she and her husband, a Hong Kong-born architecture designer who is now working for a Shenzhen-based property developer, decided to send their daughters to a Hong Kong school because publicly-funded schools in Shenzhen did not admit children born in Hong Kong or Macau.

She said the quality of private schools in Shenzhen varied and that she preferred her children to receive a Hong Kong education.
She said the long journeys every day meant the sisters would not be able to join any afterschool activities.
“It’s a loss for them,” she said. “There are some very interesting activities they like a lot. But after they get home, finish their homework and have dinner, it will be time to go to bed again. They don’t have time to do other things.”
 


Meet the sisters, aged six and seven, who have a two-and-a-half hour trek to get to school in Hong Kong

Ma Wang-ka and younger sister Ho-chun (above front) cross into Hong Kong on their long journey to school. Photo: Edward Wong

Tiredness often overcomes those who travel all the way from Shenzhen.

A father drives his son back to school in Kowloon Tong. Photo: David Wong

IN PICTURES: Back to school: Hong Kong youngsters return to their studies after summer break

Parents accompany their children back to school on the first day of new academic year at Hennessy Road Government Primary School, Wan Chai. Photo: Nora Tam

Students return back for their first day at school at Tsuen Wan Trade Association Primary School in Tsing Yi. Photo: Dickson Lee

A father kisses his son before he goes back to school. Photo: Nora Tam

Students queue to follow their class leader back to their first class of the day. Photo: Dickson Lee

Sleepy students arrive at Tsuen Wan Trade Association Primary School in Tsing Yi. Photo: Dickson Lee

Students form a line at Tsuen Wan Trade Association Primary School in Tsing Yi. Photo: Dickson Lee

Students are grouped into small teams for class. Photo: Dickson Lee

Chong Jiayi (left) and Hung Ching show off their lunch boxes prepared for them by their mothers.

IN PICTURES: All in a day’s work: The cross-border students who travel to Hong Kong to learn

Cross-border students wait to pass through immigration in Shenzhen. 

Lines of young students cross the border from Shenzhen into Hong Kong.

Huang Xuan delivers her daughter Ma Wang-ka, 7 and her younger daughter Ma Ho-chun, 6, to the border from their home in Shenzhen.

Cross-border students arrive in Hong Kong to attend school.

A student sleeps on the bus from the border to Baptist Rainbow Primary School in Wong Tai Sin.

Students arrive at Baptist Rainbow Primary School in Wong Tai Sin.

Sleepy students arrive for the first day of term.

Ma Wang-ka, 7 (left) and her younger sister Ma Ho-chun, 6, finish their breakfast before attending classes.

A total of 20 Hong Kong children living on the mainland were allocated places to study at Tsuen Wan Trade Association Primary School this year, but 11 gave up their spots because their parents were worried the journey each day would take too long. Photo: Dickson Lee

News

Hong Kong

Education

Sisters travel from Shenzhen to their primary school in Wong Tai Sin


Meet the sisters, aged six and seven, who have a two-and-a-half hour trek to get to school in Hong Kong

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Sisters travel from Shenzhen to their primary school in Wong Tai Sin

Sisters travel from Shenzhen to their primary school in Wong Tai Sin