Hong Kong’s border with mainland China bisects the closed town of Sha Tau Kok but Shui Gor crosses it every morning without a second thought. The restaurateur spends his life on both sides, waking up early at his home in Shenzhen and arriving at his eatery on the Hong Kong side of the town after a ten-minute walk.
“Flats over there [in mainland China] are a lot more spacious,” he said with a chuckle.
The 57-year-old owns Hoi Shan Lau, one of the oldest restaurants in the town sited in Hong Kong’s Frontier Closed Area – a restricted border zone established by the British colonial government in 1951 to combat illegal immigration and espionage.
As an indigenous Hakka resident of the town, Shui Gor holds a residency pass which allows him to freely pass the border post. Other Hong Kong residents must get a permit to enter the frontier zone.
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