Hong Kong’s cross-border motoring experiment is about to get much bigger. Speaking on a Commercial Radio programme on 27 June 2026, Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan revealed that the Southbound Travel for Guangdong Vehicles scheme will be opened to motorists from every one of Guangdong’s 21 prefecture-level cities by the first quarter of 2027. The scheme, launched in November 2025, currently allows private-car owners from Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Jiangmen and Zhongshan to apply online for single or multiple-entry permits to drive across the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB). Demand has far out-stripped the daily quota of 100 urban-area permits: Chan said some 15 000 applications were lodged for the July allotment—three times the available slots. To ease pressure, the government will double the urban-entry quota to 200 from 25 July and extend eligibility next month to motorists from Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan, Huizhou and Zhaoqing. By early next year the plan is to cover the entire Pearl River Delta, bringing in drivers from populous centres such as Shantou and Shaoguan. Authorities will continue to cap rural-area permits at 300 per day, but officials hinted that figure could also rise once traffic data from the HZMB’s automated toll and surveillance systems are analysed.
![Hong Kong to widen Southbound Travel Scheme to all 21 Guangdong cities as demand triples daily quota]()
If sorting out supplementary paperwork starts to look daunting, VisaHQ’s Hong Kong platform (https://www.visahq.com/hong-kong/) can save motorists and corporate travel planners considerable time. The service already assists with Hong Kong entry visas and China documents, and its specialists can advise on related requirements such as insurance certificates and cross-border vehicle permits, bundling the needed forms into a single, easy online submission.
For Hong Kong’s airport, hotels and retail sector the implications are significant. Approved drivers may use the Airport Authority’s “Park-and-Fly” facility adjacent to the bridge to drop passengers for onward flights, or apply to proceed directly into Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Tourism operators are already packaging weekend golf and shopping itineraries aimed at Shenzhen residents who can now complete the two-hour door-to-door trip without changing vehicles. Corporate mobility teams should note that drivers must carry mainland compulsory-traffic-insurance endorsements valid in Hong Kong and purchase HKSAR third-party liability cover before departure. Vehicles are restricted to left-hand drive and must be fitted with an RFID tag linked to the online booking system. Companies with sales staff shuttling between factories in the Greater Bay Area and client sites in Hong Kong could see travel times fall by half once the expansion is completed.
If sorting out supplementary paperwork starts to look daunting, VisaHQ’s Hong Kong platform (https://www.visahq.com/hong-kong/) can save motorists and corporate travel planners considerable time. The service already assists with Hong Kong entry visas and China documents, and its specialists can advise on related requirements such as insurance certificates and cross-border vehicle permits, bundling the needed forms into a single, easy online submission.
For Hong Kong’s airport, hotels and retail sector the implications are significant. Approved drivers may use the Airport Authority’s “Park-and-Fly” facility adjacent to the bridge to drop passengers for onward flights, or apply to proceed directly into Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Tourism operators are already packaging weekend golf and shopping itineraries aimed at Shenzhen residents who can now complete the two-hour door-to-door trip without changing vehicles. Corporate mobility teams should note that drivers must carry mainland compulsory-traffic-insurance endorsements valid in Hong Kong and purchase HKSAR third-party liability cover before departure. Vehicles are restricted to left-hand drive and must be fitted with an RFID tag linked to the online booking system. Companies with sales staff shuttling between factories in the Greater Bay Area and client sites in Hong Kong could see travel times fall by half once the expansion is completed.
