Sino-British Street on HK-Shenzhen border seeks new identity

Chung Ying Street, or “Sino-British Street,” straddles the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the neighboring mainland city of Shenzhen and has for decades been a special zone where local residents from both sides are allowed to cross the border freely.

It was once a boomtown popular among mainland visitors, who entered with a special permit to snatch duty-free goods from Hong Kong. But the conduit street fell into decline after travel to Hong Kong was made easier for mainlanders.

According to Chinese state media, authorities in the two cities are now hopeful that the Greater Bay Area project will help the street find a new identity, providing the impetus for the creation of a small-scale tourism attraction there.

The street is derived from a small village, which was divided by the Sino-British border after Hong Kong became British territory in the 19th century.

“When I was a child, there were only a few farmers and fishermen living on the mainland side of the street, while the Hong Kong side bustled with shops and businesses,” said Sha Jintao, a 73-year-old resident, who remembers the street’s humble beginnings.

But as Shenzhen rose as China’s opening up began in the late 1970s, the street became the center of changes. New shops and factories popped up with the inflow of Hong Kong investments, and the fancy commodities from its Hong Kong stores attracted large numbers of mainland tourists.

Historical records show the number of tourists flocking to the 250-meter-long street peaked at 100,000 a day in the 1980s.

That heyday was, however, short-lived. After Hong Kong returned to China in 1997, the street began to lose its appeal, as shopping in Hong Kong was made much easier for mainland tourists. Its daily visitors dropped below 10,000 after 2003, when mainlanders were allowed to independently travel to Hong Kong.

Many stores closed due to a loss of customers, and some survived by selling fake jewelry, winning the street much notoriety, recalled Sha, who then headed the local neighborhood committee.

Sha said the ephemeral boom was limited to the era when most Chinese had limited access to the outside world. As the country opened its door wider, the street’s function as a “window” faced an inevitable decline.

“Now with a smartphone, a consumer could easily buy goods from across the globe,” he said, referring to China’s cross- border e-commerce boom. “So, if it is just for the purpose of shopping, why take the trouble of traveling to the Chung Ying Street?”

The street is now more of a cultural site, dotted with relics and museums displaying its history, but locals are hopeful that the Greater Bay Area project will usher in a new period of economic development for their neighborhood.

Earlier this month, the city government of Shenzhen said it will upgrade its ports with Hong Kong to boost the Greater Bay Area development. The Shatoujiao Subdistrict, where the Chung Ying Street is located, was reserved for a new cooperation zone featuring tourism and consumption. DB/Xinhua