In Hong Kong, it isn't easy to find a residence as spacious as this one, but here there is plenty of room for the guests coming from Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

The busy crowd continues to move through customs. Before the end of December the 31st, as many as 150,000 people will have made their way through the port of entry at Lo Wu in the course of the day.

In this room, ten years ago, Mr. Yuan and his family watched the ceremony in which the sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred to China. To him, it was a great historical moment.

"For more than a century, people at Lo Wu were divided into two worlds. Now we've become one big family. I think it's great, "said Yuan Renji, Hong Kong Resident.

The bell rings to announce the imminent beginning of the New Year. 2007 will mark the tenth anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China.

This Hong Kong tourist group, organized by Wing On Travel, is heading for Yingde in Guangdong Province. Since public holidays in Hong Kong last only two or three days, in recent years short distance tours have become very popular. During each of these holidays, several hundred tourist groups from Hong Kong make their way to Guangdong where, in these valuable few days away from the fast pace of their daily lives, they take the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of nature. For those who can afford more time, there are long distance vacation packages taking them to places as far away as Tibet or Heilongjiang Province. The vast expanse of China's mainland and the great variety of lifestyles to be enjoyed there have become easily accessible to increasing numbers of Hong Kong residents.

"Hong Kong is a small place with too many people. The parks are packed with people during holidays and weekends, "said tourist from Hong Kong.

As soon as the New Year holiday ends, Mr. Zeng Zhao Ping from Hong Kong resumes his work schedule in Guangdong. He is one of the many Hong Kong residents whose life involves working on both sides of the border. The Kowloon-Canton Railway East Rail runs between Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon and Luohu in Shenzhen, and other towns and cities in Guangdong. The train has a 3,750 seating capacity and can transport 40,000 people each hour and, amazingly, it runs every 5 minutes.

For convenience, Mr. Zeng has bought a residence at Zhangmutou in Dongguan city of Guangdong, just a 45-minute train ride from Lo Wu (Luohu).

Zhangmutou is an old town in Guangdong Province, and since the 1990s, more and more Hong Kong people have been moving into the small town to the point where they now outnumber the local residents by five to one, earning the town the nickname "mini Hong Kong." The newcomers are here to pursue a different life style to the one they had in Hong Kong, although they have no intention of abandoning it completely. Compared to Hong Kong, "mini Hong Kong" offers them something new and something old.