3.51m tourists to flood HK during National Day holidays
( 2002-09-27 09:25 ) (8 )

A jeweller shows tourists turquoise jewelries in a exhibition held September in Hong Kong.[newsphoto.com.cn]

About 3.51 million people are expected to cross the land boundary checkpoints to and from the mainland during the coming National Day festive period, up 10.8 percent compared with the same period last year, Hong Kong's Immigration Department said Thursday.

The spokesman for the Immigration Department said that the peakperiod of cross-boundary traffic during the National Day festiveperiod would fall between Sept. 28 and Oct. 7.

It is estimated that 2.84 million passengers will cross the boundary via the Lo Wu checkpoint during the 10 days festive period, representing 81 percent of the total cross-boundary passenger traffic and an increase of 6.4 percent compared with thecorresponding period last year.

During the period, the number of departing passengers at Lo Wu may reach a peak of 200,000 on Sept. 28 while the peak of arrivalswill be on Sept. 29 with 190,000 people returning to Hong Kong.

The highest daily traffic is expected to reach 330,000 on Sept.28.

The passenger traffic at Lok Ma Chau checkpoint during the holidays will also be very heavy with a forecast of 550,000 passengers.

The peak of departures is expected to fall on Sept. 28 with about 35,000 people departing for Shenzhen, and the arrival peak will be on Sept. 29 with about 40,000 people returning to Hong Kong.

To cope with the traffic demands, the Immigration Department has arranged 112 officers to reinforce the boundary checkpoints during the festive period through internal deployment.

Besides, the Immigration Department and the Shenzhen authorities will strengthen cooperation and liaison so as to ensure smooth and orderly movements across the boundary.