Over 980,000 mainland tourists visit Hong Kong during National Day holiday

More than 980,000 Chinese mainland visitors arrived in Hong Kong during the first five days of the week-long National Day holiday, up 35 percent from the same period last year, according to the Immigration Department of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Sunday.

The holiday, starting on October 1 and known as "Golden Week," is one of China's largest annual public holidays.

Benson Kwok, director of Immigration of the HKSAR government, said on Sunday that more than 220,000 mainland visitors arrived in Hong Kong on Oct 1, the National Day, a significant increase compared with about 177,000 on the same day last year.

The figures reflected the popularity of various activities organized by the KHSAR government and various sectors of the community, and also proved that Hong Kong still has its attractiveness, Kwok said, expecting the total number of arrivals and departures to reach 300 million by the end of this year.

According to the Immigration Department, all entry ports have maintained smooth operation over the past few days, and the Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau Spur Line checkpoints were busier than others.

The Immigration Department has also applied various technological means to improve efficiency and facilitate the entry and exit procedure during the holiday.

"The three of us are college students, and we applied for Hong Kong and Macao Pass to have a two-day trip here during the National Day holiday," said Lin, a mainland tourist.

"This time when I come to Hong Kong, I heard many people speak Mandarin on the street. There are quite a lot of mainland tourists. As for the scenery, [Hong Kong has] the Golden Bauhinia Square where we are standing now, Victoria Harbor, and the Hong Kong Observation Wheel where we are going later, as well as the Victoria Peak," said Wu, another mainland tourist.

Some tourists from the mainland were amazed at the big changes in Hong Kong over the past few years.

"It has been about five years since my last visit to Hong Kong, and there have been a lot of changes. I am really proud of our motherland, and I wish our country to become more and more prosperous and powerful," said Deng, another mainland tourist.

Over 980,000 mainland tourists visit Hong Kong during National Day holiday

The week-long National Day holiday has entered the return peak on Monday, with holidaymakers across China hasting their return itineraries by train, car and air, spurring holiday traffic culmination.

The National Day holiday, also known as "golden week," is usually one of the peak travel seasons on China's domestic tourism calendar.

Railways across the country handled 18.52 million passengers on Sunday and are expected to handle 19.86 million passengers on Monday, with 1,705 additional trains scheduled.

Expressways nationwide continue to experience high traffic volumes, primarily due to return trips. The total traffic volume on these expressways is expected to reach 63 million on Monday.

Meanwhile, the country's civil aviation sector is expected to transport over 2.2 million passengers on the same day, with more than 17,000 flights scheduled for domestic routes and over 2,500 flights for inbound and outbound routes.

Holiday travel enters return peak on National Day golden week

Holiday travel enters return peak on National Day golden week