Hong Kong, China (CNN) -- They are coming from cities across China, including Beijing and Shanghai: 

Students are leaving mainland China for the opportunity to study in Hong Kong instead. 

"We are a small elite who can afford freedom beyond China's great firewall," says "Li Cheng" from Shanghai. 

Li, a student at the University of Hong Kong, did not want to disclose his real name or details about his study program, fearing consequences back home. 

"I live in one country, but it feels like having two identities," Li said. "In Shanghai, I use special software to access sites blacklisted by the government, like Twitter or the uncensored version of Google. 

"In Hong Kong, I am taught to integrate these tools in my research." 

In the past, students such as Li would have to travel to far-away countries to get around Beijing's control of information. 

Now, they are taking advantage of Hong Kong's special administrative status that allows for a "one country, two systems" rule until 2047. 

Hong Kong is nothing like mainland China in terms of its free flow of information, freedom of speech and multiparty political system. 

Those differences were recently emphasized by Google's row with the Chinese government over censorship. 

In March, Google announced it was routing its users to an uncensored version of the internet search engine based in Hong Kong, amid speculation that Google would pull out of China entirely. 

China's reaction to Google's announcement 

"When Google redirected its site from China to Hong Kong, it meant a lot of publicity for our free harbor," said David Bandurski, a China analyst at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He studies censorship issues. 
Why aren't they studying on the mainland?
Hong Kong is nothing like mainland China in terms of its free flow of information, freedom of speech and multiparty political system. 