From the hill in northernmost Hong Kong, where Jasper Law stood, the border with China was obvious - a narrow river dividing farmlands and fishponds from the gleaming skyscrapers of megacity Shenzhen.
Friday is the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's transition from British to Chinese rule.
While the view from the hilltops of Lok Ma Chau suggests that Hong Kong is clearly distinct from mainland China, the territory is fast being subsumed into Beijing's blueprint for southern China.
As the border is chipped away, the lack of public consultation has little to do to alleviate the lingering discomfort some Hong Kongers feel about living on the mainland's doorstep.
Many Hong Kongers have been concerned with the softening boundary.
It was one of the catalysts for the huge democracy protests in the finance hub three years ago, a movement originally triggered by an attempt to allow extraditions to China's mainland.
The subsequent crackdown in Beijing has sped up Hong Kong's absorption.
For decades, the integration of Hong Kong's population and economy with mainland China has been on the table.
Between 1997 and 2021, more than 1.1 million people migrated from China via a limited-quota one-way permit scheme, nearly a seventh of Hong Kong's current population.
The Chinese language was increasingly pushed in schools, sparking resentment among those who felt that the city's distinctive Cantonese culture was being eroded.
In the 2010s, Hong Kong's borders were changed, most notably with an expansion of China's high-speed rail into the city.
The mainland's Communist Party-controlled legal system is applied to a portion of Hong Kong's terminus, meaning that the mainland's terminus is under Chinese jurisdiction.
The imposed national security law to curb dissent in the wake of the protests in the year 2019 has further eroded the legal firewall between Hong Kong and the mainland.
The mainland's security agents can now operate freely in Hong Kong because of the law, which was imposed by Beijing directly rather than passed through the legislature.
Beijing can now try to do the most serious national security offences in mainland China.
The Covid-19 epidemic has whittled away at the boundaries.
While the border has been mostly closed under China's strict zero-Covid rules, mainland medics have been granted exemptions to work in Hong Kong's hospitals.
The team sent across the border to build emergency health facilities, even constructing a new bridge with Shenzhen to ease their travel.
Hong Kong's government plans to transform the border area with a two-decade plan that will place integration with Shenzhen at the heart of economic development in the city's northernmost areas, shifting focus away from Hong Kong's glitzy Victoria Harbour.
The HK $100 billion $12.7 billion project, aims to create a new megacity next to Shenzhen, is a new node in Beijing's Greater Bay Area ambitions to create a Chinese Silicon Valley connecting Hong Kong and multiple cities in the neighbouring Guangdong province.
The government says the metropolis will create 650,000 jobs and create 650,000 new homes in one of the world's least affordable cities.
Kenneth To, a veteran urban planner, said he thought the government's vision was far from coherent and bemoaned the small circle of vested interests that dominated the discussion on development in Hong Kong.
He told AFP that the power imbalance is worrying.
Jack Lam, a mobile accessories seller who lives in a district near the border, was more optimistic.
As the population increases, you can expect more development to come, as there will be more people starting businesses for sure, the 35-year-old said.