A WOMAN from Shenzhen, who goes by Xiaoxue said that she and her classmates all hoped that Hong Kong could restore peace and order as soon as possible, reported Shenzhen Economic Daily on Thursday.

Xiaoxue became an undergraduate student in Hong Kong University in 2019. However, Hong Kong’s unrest since last year impeded her learning experience.

Xiaoxue hoped that with the implementation of Hong Kong national security law, long-term peace will return to the city.

Xiaoxue’s story is, in fact, the epitome of many other cross-border students who pursued further education in Hong Kong.

Another woman from Shenzhen, who is identified as Yu, applied to pursue a master’s degree at Hong Kong Baptist University in 2019.

Yu said that she valued the quality of Hong Kong’s education and its international vision. However, affected by Hong Kong’s turmoil last year and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yu can not return to Hong Kong and had to take online lessons instead.

As educational exchanges between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong were getting more frequent in recent years, an increasing number of people like Yu choose to study in Hong Kong.

At the moment, they are eager for a stable social order and learning environment in Hong Kong, the report said.

Though Secondary 3-5 in Hong Kong have resumed classes since June 15, parents of cross-border students in Shenzhen still show some concerns.

Huang Jinghong, a staff member with a cross-border bus service company, told the Daily’s reporter that since the turmoil, around 30 to 40 percent of parents have pulled their children out of the service out of fear.

Some even suspended their children’s schooling and transferred them to mainland schools.

“Kids are future of the country. A sound legal environment, along with appropriate guidance from family, can bring right values to children,” said Huang. (Wang Jingli)