Mainland tourists were stranded in Hong Kong overnight! Leung Chun-ying: Something will happen, cross-border traffic will be paralyzed
At midnight on New Year’s Day this year, Hong Kong’s Victoria Bay held the largest fireworks display in history, attracting 480,000 citizens and tourists to both sides of the harbour. Data shows that 227,000 tourists visited Hong Kong on December 31, 2023, setting a single-day record in 2023. However, after the fireworks, people returning to the mainland were unable to return because cross-border traffic was paralyzed, and they had to stay in Hong Kong overnight.
Currently, the only ports that operate overnight between Hong Kong and the Mainland are the "Lok Ma Chau/Huanggang" port and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge port. Since there are no subway connections between the two ports, passengers returning to Shenzhen have to take a bus from Victoria Harbor. However, some tourists said that it took half an hour to leave the Victoria Harbor crowd control area. "It took a full 18 hours to get home just for the 12-minute fireworks display."
Data from the Huanggang Entry-Exit Border Inspection Station shows that since about 1 a.m. on the 1st, the "wave-like" passenger flow in the entry hall has been concentrated and peaked, and it continued until about 8 a.m. that day before tending to decline. During this period, the nighttime passenger flow at Huanggang Port was five times that of usual, and nearly 45,000 passengers entering Shenzhen were inspected.
Regarding this incident of tourists being unable to return home, Liu Guoxun, vice chairman of the Development Affairs Committee of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, believes that every night event held in Hong Kong will attract a large number of mainland tourists. If the problem is not faced squarely, this kind of chaos may continue. He pointed out that the Immigration Department data showed that the number of people arriving in Hong Kong exceeded 200,000. The government should have expected that many people would return to Shenzhen that day, but it had not made cross-border transportation arrangements in advance.
Liu Guoxun believes that the government can increase the number of 24-hour ports as soon as possible, or extend the operating hours of some ports with subway connections in the short term. "Is it possible to extend the service hours to 2 a.m. during major festivals or holidays?"
Li Huiqiong, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, believes that this incident was caused by the SAR government's supporting measures and the insufficient response of the transportation service operators. She proposed to increase the number of 24-hour customs clearance ports between Hong Kong and the mainland to allow more frequent exchanges between the two places. She has also made relevant suggestions to the General Administration of Customs during the meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
Leung Chun-ying, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, published a post on social media on the 2nd titled "Simplifying procedures, increasing transportation capacity, and all-day customs clearance", believing that there are problems with the "connectivity" between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Leung Chun-ying believes that the intercity relationship between Hong Kong and Shenzhen is the only one in the world, including four points: both places are large-scale, high-density cities; they are extremely close; there is a large gap in price and wage levels; and there are prominent differences in economic structure. He believes that the huge intercity flow of people between Hong Kong and Shenzhen is "unparalleled in the world" and suggests increasing the capacity of the ticket purchase system or adding 24-hour customs clearance ports. As for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, Leung Chun-ying believes that if customs clearance procedures are not simplified in time, cross-border public transportation capacity is increased, and customs clearance time is extended, "something will happen."
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