8,000 cross borders during extended hours

According to Public Security Police, over 8,000 people have crossed the three inland borders connecting the city to Zhuhai during extended entry hours, that saw the Border Gate – Gongbei portal operated with two-hour entry extension, while the Lotus Port-Hengqin border as well as the Industrial Zone border in Ilha Verde worked round-the-clock starting from yesterday.
The closing hour of the busiest of inland checkpoints at Border Gate – Gongbei portal was adjusted to 1:00 am instead of 12:00 midnight, with opening hours extended to 6:00 am from the previous 7:00 am.
Under the new border crossing measures, the police said the Border Gate – Gongbei portal has handled a total volume of passenger traffic of 5,814 people during the extended border entry hours, which it deemed as effectively alleviating the usually hectic passenger traffic during the morning rush hours of 7:00 am to 8:00 am.
The Border Gate – Gongbei portal handles the heaviest visitor traffic to and from the city, where local authorities reported before that the daily volume that the checkpoint handles is around 300,000 people.
The checkpoint at the Cross Border Industrial Zone, connecting Ilha Verde and Maoshengwei in Zhuhai, saw 1,153 people crossing from 12:00 midnight to 7:00 am, which represents a much bigger daily passenger volume than the 350-odd people crossing the industrial zone checkpoint during this time span seen before the special border crossing measure was implemented.
Compared to the other two inland borders, the cross-border industrial zone checkpoint has a more restricted access to the type of visitor that can enjoy the 24-hour border crossing measure: besides workers in the park with special passes, only mainland Chinese labour working in the city, mainland students studying in Macau and Macau residents can cross the checkpoint in the zone from 12:00 midnight to 7:00 am.
The Lotus Port-Hengqin border handled 1,293 people from 12:00 midnight to 9:00 am yesterday, police reported. Before the measure was implemented, this border opened at 9:00 am and closed at 8:00 pm; while Hengqin island is still in a development stage with ongoing infrastructure and tourism projects, the border straddling the island and Macau used to handle a daily passenger volume of 13,000 people.
S.L.