Early return helps many dodge clogged borders

Wallis Wang

On the final day of the three-day Chung Yeung Festival holiday, locals returned in droves, clogging border checkpoints, though some managed to avoid the peak by returning early yesterday.

Nearly 600,000 Hong Kong residents left the city on Friday for the long weekend, according to Immigration Department figures.

The Lo Wu port had been busy since 5pm yesterday, with travelers lugging suitcases forming long queues. It took people around half an hour to cross the border on top of having to wait several minutes before boarding the MTR.

Some Hongkongers were worried that the border checkpoints would become more crowded at night and so decided to return early.

"The border may be overcrowded tonight [last night], and the bus station in Sheung Shui will see long queues and people may not be able to get on the buses," a traveler said.

Another woman, So, said her family dodged the border-crossing peak by returning to Hong Kong right after lunch.

Many travelers returning to the city via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge said traffic was smooth in the afternoon, after the Transport Department liaised with mainland authorities to enhance the frequency of Hong Kong-Zhuhai shuttle buses to cope with traffic peak from 2pm.

"We originally planned to return after dinner, but we expected there would be a lot of travelers so we returned early," a woman, Cheung, said.

Amid the northbound travel heat, local restaurants faced a cold market during the long weekend, as catering veteran Simon Wong Ka-wo said the sector saw more than a 30 percent drop in business compared to previous weekends. Wong, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, told The Standard that the catering business, especially the dinner-time business, suffered a lot as too many Hongkongers left the city to celebrate the holiday elsewhere.

"There is nothing we can do since Hong Kong restaurants cannot be as cheap as mainland ones. Some restaurants even closed early, making the market even more quiet at night," he said.

Wong added that customers' consumption power was also weaker as stocks fell, and fewer mainland tourists visited the city over the past weekend.

However, Wong said he is optimistic that the catering business this month may reach HK$9 billion as expected.

"Many restaurants will be hosting weddings this month while more Hongkongers will be staying in the city and spending money here with no long holidays," he said.

Meanwhile, Japan's consul-general Kenichi Okada said the number of Hong Kong travelers visiting Japan already exceeded 1.8 million as of August, up 20 percent on the 2019 record-high.

wallis.wang@singtaonewscorp.com