Hong Kong’s Immigration Department reported that more than 601,000 people had already crossed the city’s land, rail and sea control points by 16:00 on October 1, the first day of the Golden Week holiday. Of these, 347,000 were arrivals—225,000 of them mainland visitors—while 253,000 were departures, dominated by Hong Kong residents heading north through Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau. Officials expect total traffic to exceed one million movements before midnight, approaching pre-pandemic 2019 levels. Lo Wu, High-Speed Rail West Kowloon and Shenzhen Bay were the three busiest crossings, collectively handling nearly two-thirds of all passenger flows. To ease pressure, the Immigration Department opened all 430 counter positions and deployed roving ‘immigration ambassadors’ fluent in Mandarin, English and Korean. An AI-driven forecasting system—trialled quietly this summer—projects hourly arrival surges and automatically notifies bus operators when queue times exceed 20 minutes. Retail analysts say the data bode well for Hong Kong’s goal of recapturing short-haul, high-frequency mainland shoppers. Luxury malls in Tsim Sha Tsui reported footfall up 18 percent by early afternoon, while UnionPay transaction volumes inside Harbour City grew 22 percent year-on-year. For international assignees transiting Hong Kong, mobility managers should anticipate longer taxi queues at Kowloon hotels and encourage use of the Octopus-app ride-hailing discount offered this week.
Source: RTHK Chinese News
