Hong Kong students get help to enter mainland China for new school year, with special quotas, more flights and alternative quarantine plans
- New arrangement announced after 1,000 frustrated students asked for help to get to school on time
- Latest figures show around 18,430 students from Hong Kong were studying in tertiary and research institutes across border
Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin announced the arrangements at a press conference on Tuesday after more than 1,000 frustrated students asked lawmakers for help to cross the border a week before the start of the academic year.
They had complained that they had failed to book quarantine hotel rooms, air or bus tickets, with some prices soaring by up to 66 times the original amount.
Students stuck in Hong Kong would be given until Friday to apply online for special arrangements to cross the border and attend mainland schools after the summer holiday, she said.
With the support of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and education ministry, she said authorities on the mainland had agreed that local students attending schools there would not need to compete for the 2,000 quota spots drawn daily under a lottery system for most travellers wanting to cross the border.
