Hong Kong battles 'pregnancy tourism'

It is considered good luck in China to have a baby in the Year of the Dragon.

The benefits of a Hong Kong passport are highly prized by many mainland Chinese, and the high demand by pregnant women to cross the border has brought tough new regulations and restricted access to public hospitals.

However, a flourishing private sector is offering maternity beds, with some agents offering to get around the rules.

Al Jazeera's Rob McBride reports from Hong Kong.

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News & Politics

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• hong kong
• Rob McBride
• aljazeera
• al jazeera
• pregnancy
• birth

[dubaipete]

yet another example of human threat caused by superstitious nonsense. Year of the idiot.

[mo1elftausend]

Stupid idea to have your children born in the year most children get born, he will have to face more competition when getting a job

[SAIDON92]

Hong Kong should stop giving out Birthright Citizenship. We HAVE too many mainlanders using up our resources. Our own people are suffering!

[bunnyrabbit008]

if you got a Hong Kong husband you can have as many kids you want , but not in if u got a Big6 hubby.

[tkcwu]

@JewTube001 yes but not quality ones.

[tkcwu]

@peng1110 and stay the fcuk in china

[ktchong]

Hong Kong has a stupid law just like the USA: if a baby is born in Hong Kong, he automatically becomes a Hong Kong "citizen".

Just so you guys know: Chinese "tourists" are also exploiting this citizen-by-birthright loophole in the USA. Tens of thousands of Chinese women come to the San Gabriel Valley region in California to give birth, so that their Chinese babies automatically gain US citizenship, before they go back to China with their "American" babies.

[guoqing00]

@mosquitoe This is very cynical. Not everybody wants to come to Hong Kong, I'm a mainlander, and I don't want to live in Hong Kong.

[tracefeng]

Where does Al Jazeera get its experts? A Feng Shui master? Any man or woman off the street could have told you that.

[peng1110]

Couples who pay for the tour will not be in huge favor of hongkongs education, as they can always send their children abroad... What they want is the passport... After getting the passport, they probably just go back where they were in china

[mosquitoe]

go home mainland pregnant women!!! go home!!!