Many children from the mainland commute to Hong Kong every day to attend school as their families look to use the advantages offered by the city's Western-style education system
Three years ago, when her 2-year-old son had a fever that sent his temperature soaring to 39 C, Zou Fang rushed more than 100 km to the hospital in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.
The moment she entered the ward, though, her son, named Xuanxuan, said he didn't want to see her and asked her to leave.
Zou, who was living and working in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong, was devastated. She was overwhelmed with guilt at not being there for her son and realized she had to make a choice between her work and family commitments.
Then 32, Zou immediately quit her job as second-in-command at the South China office of an advertising agency and moved back to Shenzhen to repair the breach with Xuanxuan, who had lived with her mother since he was born.
Zou said it was the hardest decision of her life, but in retrospect, it was the wisest she ever made.
It took six months to restore her relationship with her son. She took him to the park every day and spoke with him at length to improve his language skills, which were extremely poor, and far worse than those of children of the same age in Shenzhen and neighboring Hong Kong, where her son was born and her husband has permanent residence.
The months she spent with Xuanxuan also gave Zou time to think about the things she valued most in life.
Zou and her husband met in Guangzhou and married after a seven-year relationship. Xuanxuan was born five years ago.
After making the momentous decision to give up her career and care for her son, Zou was faced with another dilemma-where should he be educated? Because Xuanxuan has permanent residency status in the city of his birth, he was eligible to be educated in Hong Kong, so Zou spent six months researching schools and preparing her son for school at a well-respected kindergarten.
Despite her months of preparation, there were still plenty of surprises in store for Zou. She and her husband had to line up all night just to get an application form for the Fung Kai Kindergarten, a top institution in Hong Kong's North District.
The couple was shocked by the other parents' enthusiasm and the preparations they had made for the vigil. Many arrived equipped with sleeping bags and other items to help them endure the long night, while Zou and her husband only brought one portable chair.
It was worth the effort, though; although there were more than 2,000 applicants, Xuanxuan was one of just 200 children admitted to the kindergarten that year.
Student numbers soar
Zou's son was one of more than 24,990 children who commuted between Shenzhen and Hong Kong during the 2014-15 school year, a huge rise from 9,899 in 2010-11, according to the latest data from the Hong Kong Education Bureau.
In light of the rise in numbers, several proposals have been put forward, including suggestions that Shenzhen's public schools should be opened to cross-border students with permanent residence in Hong Kong. Most of them have mainland parents, who have no right to reside in Hong Kong, but the others are the children of people from Hong Kong who live and work on the mainland.
