Mainland Chinese entrepreneurs visit Hong Kong, city residents reunite with loved ones across the border as quarantine-free travel returns
- Many travellers took ferries and trains to cross the border for business and family purposes
- ‘I’m too excited to say a word. I can finally go home after two years of not seeing the folks,’ says one traveller returning to Guangdong for the Lunar New Year holiday
Entrepreneurs from mainland China came to Hong Kong for business opportunities and residents from the city headed north to reunite with their loved ones for the first time in three years after the resumption of quarantine-free, cross-border travel on Sunday.
At the Hong Kong China Ferry Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui, Guo Zhiqing, 43, who works at a shipping company in the city, said he was overjoyed to be returning home to Guangdong for the Lunar New Year holiday.
He took the first ferry at 8.20am to Shenzhen airport.
“I’m too excited to say a word. I can finally go home after two years of not seeing the folks,” he said. “Look at my eyes, I lost sleep last night”.
Ferries to Taipa in Macau also resumed services on Sunday, with Shun Tak Holdings’ TurboJet operating five trips between 10.30am and 3.30pm from the Macau Ferry Terminal in Sheung Wan and seven between 10am and 6pm in the other direction.
Another operator, Cotai Water Jet, is running two trips to Taipa at noon and 4pm, and three to Hong Kong between noon and 6.30pm.
