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Elizabeth Cheung

Emily Hung

Soon after becoming a mother, Hong Kong resident Sarah Tam enjoyed eight hours of sleep a night and yoga sessions at a post-partum care centre in neighbouring Shenzhen, where carers looked after her newborn around the clock.
Tam, a 30-year-old social worker who gave birth in mid-July, spent a month at the facility in mainland China, recovering from delivery with total peace of mind.
She said she felt completely at ease leaving her baby in their care, which allowed “mothers to truly focus on resting”.
In Hong Kong, new mothers commonly hire a specialised post-partum carer, known locally as a pui yuet, to assist with baby care and recovery at home.
However, round-the-clock confinement care in the city can cost upwards of HK$70,000 (US$8,927). The steep price tag prompted Tam and her husband to cross the border to a post-partum care centre in Shenzhen.
For just HK$40,000, Tam stayed in a hotel-style room equipped with a queen-sized bed, en suite bathroom, sofa, steriliser, bottle warmer and fridge.
The package also covered six meals a day, daily essentials such as nappies and baby clothes, 24-hour newborn care and maternal wellness treatments including massages and facials.
During her stay, Tam breastfed her baby for around 30 to 60 minutes a day, leaving bottle-feeding and daily care to centre staff the rest of the time.
On days when her husband or other visitors were around, she kept the baby with her for five to six hours.
“It’s great value for money,” she said. “The stay averaged around HK$1,500 to HK$1,600 per night … inclusive of three meals, three snacks, baby care, various services and activities.”

Tam is part of a growing wave of Hong Kong residents travelling across the border for medical and healthcare services, from routine check-ups and dental work to specialised inpatient procedures.
Many of these services match or surpass local quality standards, at a fraction of the cost.
Capitalising on the influx of non-local patients, Guangzhou – the capital of Guangdong province and a core city in the bay area – is also positioning itself as a regional hub for medical tourism.
Experts noted the northbound wave could ease pressure on Hong Kong’s public healthcare system and raise mainland medical standards, while forcing local private providers to rethink their business models to stay competitive
Relieving the burden but hurting the private market?
Medical and healthcare services are a strategic priority for integration under the Greater Bay Area development plan, a national blueprint linking Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province.
According to mainland health authorities, Hong Kong residents made 700,000 visits to Shenzhen medical facilities in 2023.
Across Guangdong, 30,575 patients from Hong Kong and Macau received inpatient hospital care that year, a 125.6 per cent increase compared with 2018.
“When the mainland offers much lower costs and significantly improved medical standards, it is only natural that people cross the border for care,” said Dr Ko Wing-man, Hong Kong’s former secretary for food and health and honorary president of the Greater Bay Area Medical Professional Development Association.

Cheaper cancer therapies across the border are among the most sought-after treatments among Hongkongers.
Data from Guangzhou United Family Hospital shows that pembrolizumab – an immunotherapy drug used to treat various cancers – costs 17,918 yuan (HK$20,894) on the mainland, whereas the market price for the same drug in Hong Kong is nearly double, at 30,360 yuan.
The breast cancer combination therapy pertuzumab and trastuzumab costs 10,321 yuan at the Guangzhou facility, whereas the same treatment in Hong Kong costs more than five times as much, at 55,872 yuan.
Ko said that the flow of patients to the mainland could ease pressure on Hong Kong’s public hospitals, much like public-private partnerships or the Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme, which redirects patients towards private healthcare options.
Hong Kong authorities have introduced several measures to facilitate the northbound trend, such as enabling residents to share electronic health records with select bay area medical facilities and expanding the healthcare voucher scheme for elderly residents to 21 regional institutions.
Despite these measures, Ko stressed that the government was not pushing the city’s patients across the border.


“It has never been a case of the government asking people to go north for medical services, or the city’s healthcare sector sending patients away to the mainland,” he said.
However, Ko acknowledged that some patients who previously used private healthcare services in Hong Kong might also be drawn to the mainland.
A 2024 survey of 203 private practitioners conducted by the Association of Private Medical Specialists of Hong Kong revealed that 71 per cent reported a decline in patient numbers over the previous year.
Nearly 40 per cent of the respondents of the survey – which had not been released to the public previously – said they believed the decline could be due to patients turning to services in the bay area.
Competitive pricing and greater transparency
Shadow Lu, a 33-year-old financial planner, visited a dentist in Shenzhen for the first time in 2023 for a root canal procedure, which cost her around 13,000 yuan. She said a similar treatment would have set her back by HK$20,000 to HK$30,000 in Hong Kong.

Pleased with the outcome, she returned for follow-up dental work in February this year.
“On my first visit, I was drawn purely by the price. For my second visit, I returned to the same dentist as I found his skills were very good,” Lu said.
Lu also noted greater transparency on the mainland, where consumer review platforms offered extensive patient feedback and detailed profiles of individual practitioners.
Using a customer review app popular on the mainland, she could check comments from those who had used the service before choosing a dentist.
“Service in Hong Kong is expensive, and there isn’t much reference for me to check whether a dentist is capable or not,” she said.
Cross-border maternal care is also expanding. Onyuma Maternity Centre in Shenzhen’s Longgang district – a 40-minute drive from the Heung Yuen Wai border checkpoint – is one of the few post-partum confinement centres on the mainland run by Hongkongers.
Operations director Eva Cheng Pui-yin said the business opened in 2023 after conducting thorough market research.
“Our company invested in mainland China early on. In recent years, we expanded into the ‘big health’ sector in light of the Greater Bay Area’s prospects, with maternal care being a key focus,” she said.


To her surprise, the number of clients from Hong Kong grew from an initial trickle in the early years to a consistent six to seven bookings every month.
Foreign nationals working in Shenzhen or Hong Kong also used their service, she added.
Cheng attributed the shift to evolving consumption patterns, convenient transport and the exceptional value for money that Hong Kong mothers could enjoy on the mainland.
Standard packages at Onyuma Maternity Centre cost roughly 40,000 yuan and include dedicated cross-border hospital pickup, alongside help with newborn travel permit applications.
The most luxurious package costs 120,000 yuan, and includes a 900 sq ft two-bedroom suite designed for visiting families, as well as an unlimited supply of baby products, among other perks.
Amid the trend towards post-partum confinement across the border, Cheng reminded mothers to exercise caution when selecting services.
“Some businesses engage in aggressive price wars, some of them fold abruptly and leave mothers in distress, while others add hidden fees after check-in,” she warned. “Price is important, but institutional stability, quality and reputation matter just as much.”

Regional medical ambitions
Guangzhou United Family Hospital has witnessed a significant increase in both Hongkongers and foreigners seeking its services. The private facility is operated by the New Frontier Group, which was co-founded by Hong Kong’s former financial secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung.
Executive general manager Zhang Xuming said the hospital projected a 75 per cent year-on-year increase in Hong Kong outpatient visits this year, while surgical operations for Hong Kong patients were expected to surge by 230 per cent.
Common procedures included cardiac stenting, joint replacements and gallbladder surgeries, he said.
“An operation could be arranged for patients the day after an examination, if no major problems are identified,” Zhang said.
Apart from quick arrangements, surgeries at the facility were around 30 to 50 per cent cheaper than similar procedures offered at Hong Kong’s private hospitals, he said.
While mainland patients accounted for 70 to 80 per cent of admissions, Zhang expected the proportion of non-local patients – especially those who are not from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan – to increase.
“[Medical tourism] could help raise Guangzhou’s profile internationally,” he said.
Guangzhou authorities are working to position the city as a major medical tourism hub, leveraging its top-tier hospitals, expert medical staff and international links via Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, one of China’s busiest aviation hubs.

The airport handled more than 10 million international and cross-border passengers as of July 3 this year, a year-on-year increase of around 20 per cent.
In April, the Guangzhou International Medical Tourism Service Centre was set up by the government to provide one-stop support to non-locals amid the growing demand for healthcare services.
Guangzhou vice-mayor Lai Zhihong said at an August conference in Hong Kong that the centre had partnered with 17 local hospitals to assist non-mainlanders with healthcare access, insurance payment processing, accommodation and transport.
Last year, Guangzhou provided outpatient services to 168,000 non-local patients and inpatient care to around 15,000 foreign visitors.
Calls for caution
Tim Pang Hung-cheong, a patients’ rights advocate with the Society for Community Organisation, warned that while the mainland offered cheaper medical options, Hong Kong patients faced potential hurdles regarding quality consistency and dispute resolution.
“In the event of a medical dispute, most patients would be unsure of how to seek redress – whether to approach the hospital directly or navigate an unfamiliar complaint system,” Pang said.
He also cautioned that diagnostic imaging conducted on the mainland might not always align with Hong Kong protocols, potentially complicating follow-up care back home.
“Is the imaging done according to the technical specifications used by Hong Kong? Are the reports written according to Hong Kong standards?” he said.

Pang emphasised that in the long term it would be crucial to achieve a win-win situation in which patients enjoyed benefits from both sides of the border – value for money on the mainland and quality service in Hong Kong.
The market has already shown signs of integration amid the trend of northbound medical tourism, with some insurers in Hong Kong now covering healthcare services provided on the mainland.
“Medical costs are lower across the border, yet insurance premiums remain broadly the same,” Pang said. “The market will naturally adjust based on the comparative advantages of both systems.”
As cross-border competition grows, former health chief Ko urged Hong Kong’s private healthcare providers to sharpen their competitive edge.
“How can we make use of our standards that are on par with international practice, or our medical culture, to facilitate more people coming?” he said. “These are the areas we need to think about.”


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Hong Kong healthcare and hospitals

Faster and cheaper: why Hongkongers are heading north for medical care

Illustration by Brian Wang

Sarah Tam and her newborn son Isaac Kuo at a post-partum care centre in Shenzhen. Photo: Edmond So

Dr Ko Wing-man, honorary president of the Greater Bay Area Medical Professional Development Association, says the flow of Hong Kong patients to the mainland could ease pressure on the city’s hospitals. Photo: Edmond So

Shadow Lu says there is greater transparency on the mainland, where consumer review platforms offer extensive patient feedback and detailed profiles of individual practitioners. Photo: Kit Lai

According to Eva Cheng, operations director of Onyuma Maternity Centre, Hong Kong clients make six to seven bookings at the centre every month. Photo: Edmond So

Zhang Xuming, executive general manager, Guangzhou United Family Hospital.Surgeries at Guangzhou United Family Hospital. Photo: Handout

The kitchen at Onyuma Maternity Centre in Shenzhen provides mothers with herbal soups and other dishes that aid their post-partum recovery. Photo: Edmond So

Nursing staff take care of infants at Onyuma Maternity Centre in Shenzhen. Photo: Edmond So

Guangzhou United Family Hospital expects outpatient visits by Hongkongers to increase by 75 per cent year on year in 2026. Photo: Handout

Hongkongers increase cross-border shopping splurges, spending data shows

Passengers cross the border via Shenzhen Bay Control Point in Hong Kong on June 17. Photo: Jelly Tse

People walk at the MixC shopping mall in Nanshan, Shenzhen, on July 1. Photo: May Tse

Value, space and style pull Hongkongers to Shenzhen’s new cultural hotspots

Illustration: Henry Wong 

A visitor takes in the “Design100: Design People Life” exhibition at Shenzhen Bay Culture Square. Photo: Sun Yeung

Shenzhen Bay Culture Square opened last November. Photo: Sun Yeung

The Oh family spent several days in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Photo: Sun Yeung

Jingtian Coffee Street in Shenzhen is a popular spot for relaxing. Photo: Sun Yeung

The M+ museum and the Hong Kong Palace Museum (background) in the West Kowloon Cultural District. Photo: Jelly Tse

The Cheungs say Shenzhen Bay Culture Square is spacious.  Photo: Sun Yeung

Are Hong Kong’s restaurants fighting a losing battle against lower-cost Shenzhen?

The Red Cuisine owner Joyce Yuen serves dishes at her restaurant in Quarry Bay, Hong Kong. Many restaurants in the city are struggling with falling customer numbers as more locals head to Shenzhen for cheaper meals. Photo: May Tse

Stewed pork ramen from Ippei-An in Tsim Sha Tsui. Owner Kosei Kamatani had to close the original Ippei-An outlet due to falling sales. Photo: Edward Wong

Dumplings with spicy sauce from The Red Cuisine in Quarry Bay, Hong Kong. Owner Joyce Yuen says business has dropped and costs have risen in the past few years. Photo: May Tse

Jen Balisi, founder of Barkada in SoHo, says that it is now common for half of the tables at her restaurant on a Friday night to order no alcohol at all. Photo: Jonathan Wong

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Hong Kong

Health & Environment

Lower costs and fast service across the border draw patients to Guangdong, leaving Hong Kong’s private doctors squeezed


Lower costs and fast service across the border draw patients to Guangdong, leaving Hong Kong’s private doctors squeezed.


.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Lower costs and fast service across the border draw patients to Guangdong, leaving Hong Kong’s private doctors squeezed

Lower costs and fast service across the border draw patients to Guangdong, leaving Hong Kong’s private doctors squeezed