Many of the Chinese mainlanders have chosen to visit
Hong Kong to spend the Chinese Lunar New Yearholiday, and bestowed the city's tourism industry with another shot in the arm.
According to the
Hong Kong immigration department, a record 28,200 single-day individual visitors crossed the border into
Hong Kong on Jan. 24, up by 7,200 on the previous record, set on National Day last year.
A total of 273,000 mainlanders visited
Hong Kong between Jan. 19 and 25, a rise of 84,630 or 31 percent on the same period last year. Of these, 105,400 were individual tourists.
So far, 14 cities in Guangdong plus
Shanghai and
Beijing have joined the scheme, which enabled tourists to tour
Hong Kong on their own instead of joining packaged tours offered by the travel agencies.
In Hong Kong, which enjoys the reputation of the shopping paradise, mainlanders have found it hard to resist the temptation of shopping. Actually, they top the list of all incoming visitors to
Hong Kong in terms of shopping generosity, with an average spending of 5,000 HK dollars (641 US dollars).
Moreover, that figure keeps growing. Latest statistics show that mainlanders, on average, spend around 8,000 HK dollars (1,026US dollars) during their stay in Hong Kong. For the period of Jan.19 to Jan. 24 alone, their expenditure in
Hong Kong is estimated at 1.7 billion HK dollars (217.9 million US dollars), covering theindustries of hotels, restaurants and groceries.
Taking advantage of the business opportunities, about 80 percent of the shops in downtown Causeway Bay in
Hong Kong have discarded the tradition of closing on the first day of the ChineseLunar New Year and opened for business.
By rough estimates, the businesses in
Hong Kong have gained a 20 percent rise in revenue from the same time last year thanks to the huge influx of mainland tourists during the holiday season.
For sight-seeing, the city of
Hong Kong has offered much eye-attracting activities for mainland visitors, including the float parade at Tsim Sha Tsui, the fireworks display at the Victoria Harbor and the year-end flower bazaar at the Victoria Park.
Moreover, the city's first ever international orchid festival will kick off in
Hong Kong Wednesday, where a pot of orchid worth 100 million HK dollars (12.8 million US dollars) is surely something visitors will not want to miss.
The city of
Hong Kong has still much to excite people. During his stay in Hong Kong, businessman Wang Baoshan from Zhejiang Province took a 15-minute helicopter ride to get a bird view of the beautiful scenery of
Hong Kong at a cost of 800 HK dollars (103 US dollars), which climaxed his stay in Hong Kong.
Tourist Chen from mainland Guangdong Province spent a happy afternoon at the Shatin Racecourse, experiencing the excitement ofhorse racing. The
Hong Kong Jockey Club has designated specific area for mainland tourists there and assigned people to teach the mainlanders of the betting rules.
Beijinger Wu Nan travelled all way to Hong Kong, simply aiming to watch the birds. With the permit of the World Wildlife Fund (Hong Kong), food, water and telescopes, Wu and several others entered the Mai Po wetland, a paradise for bird lovers, and would spend several days there, in the hope of getting a glimpse of someof the precious birds on the verge of extinction.
