Travelers heading to mainland wait to cross the border at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong Kong Port in south China, Jan 8, 2023. Hong Kong will fully resume travel with the Chinese mainland with almost no limitations on Feb 6, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Hong Kong will fully resume travel with the Chinese mainland with almost no limitations on Monday. Officials said the government is focusing on ensuring smooth operations during the landmark day, and local shops are making every effort to win back mainland visitors.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced on Friday at a media briefing that full-scale resumption of travel with the mainland will begin on Monday, with existing travel quotas and mandatory COVID-19 test requirements for cross-boundary passengers to be scrapped at the same time.

However, a negative PCR test result will still be mandatory for mainland-bound travelers who have been to Taiwan or overseas regions in the past seven days. In addition, Hong Kong-bound travelers from Taiwan and overseas still must have either a negative PCR or rapid antigen test

However, a negative PCR test result will still be mandatory for mainland-bound travelers who have been to Taiwan or overseas regions in the past seven days. In addition, Hong Kong-bound travelers from Taiwan and overseas still must have either a negative PCR or rapid antigen test.

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Also effective Monday, Macao travelers heading to Hong Kong will no longer need to do a rapid antigen test, and the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for inbound travelers from overseas and Taiwan will be dropped.

Lee said border control points at Lo Wu, Heung Yuen Wai, Lok Ma Chau and Sha Tau Kok Port also will reopen on Monday.

While the Sha Tau Kok port will offer only freight clearance services, the other three checkpoints — still closed — will provide both passenger and freight clearance services over pre-pandemic hours of operation. The Lok Ma Chau-Huanggang cross boundary shuttle and other cross boundary bus services will resume at the same time.

Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan Kwok-ki, who chairs the Hong Kong SAR government’s Coordination Group on Resumption of Normal Travel, said that from Jan 8 through Feb 2, 770,000 northbound and 700,000 southbound passengers had crossed the border.

READ MORE: Travel links with SARs to fully reopen

Chan also said that starting Wednesday, cross-border students of Hong Kong secondary schools can use special channels at checkpoints and school bus services to return to Hong Kong for face-to-face classes.

The arrangement will cover other cross-border students of primary schools, kindergartens and special schools starting Feb 22, Chan added.

Secretary for Education Choi Yuk-lin said the Education Bureau has reminded cross-border students to renew their travel documents since last year, and will offer special arrangement for them to extend their re-entry permits. It also launched a designated web page for schools and parents to get more information and support for the resumption of students’ classes.

At the same media briefing, Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said that from Jan 8 to 29, the daily COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong dropped 80 percent from 14,000 to 3,000. The number of imported cases remained low, with mainland cases accounting for only 16 percent of the overall imported cases, he said. This clearly shows that resumption of normal travel with the mainland will not aggravate the city’s pandemic situation, Lo added.

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The city’s transportation operators are also actively preparing for a surge in passengers expected from the full reopening of the border.

Cheung Chi-keung, MTR’s head of cross-boundary operations, said there will be about 10 trains heading to the Lo Wu Station every hour starting Monday. For every three northbound trains on the East Rail Line, two will go to the Lo Wu Station and one to the Lok Ma Chau Station. The train frequency of the East Rail Line will return to roughly pre-pandemic levels.

Eddie Choi, deputy general manager of Eternal East Cross-Border Coach Management, said the cross border coach bus services has recovered about 30 percent of capacity so far, which is enough to meet the passenger surge in the short term. The company’s buses will continue to run every half-hour after Monday, and the company will gradually increase the frequency later.

Meanwhile, merchants are also gearing up to welcome the return of mainland visitors. A total of 15 shopping malls under the Sun Hung Kai Properties, including APM, the World Trade Centre and Tai Po Mega Mall, will offer gift packages and coupons to consumers beginning on Monday to celebrate the full travel resumption and the upcoming Valentine’s Day.

Contact the writers at williamxu@chinadailyhk.com