Shenzhen set to limit visits to HK
Print Edition
CHINA is to limit visits by Shenzhen residents to neighboring Hong Kong, following recent tensions caused by a growing numbers of visitors from the mainland.
Shenzhen authorities are to restrict its residents to one visit to Hong Kong per week, from an unlimited number of daily trips, said Michael Tien, a Hong Kong member of the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament.
“It will definitely happen,” Tien told reporters. “I have heard from very reliable government sources.”
Local media said the travel curbs could come into effect as early as today.
The development comes after a groundswell of discontent in Hong Kong towards rampant growth in the numbers of mainland visitors.
Shenzhen is just a short train ride from Hong Kong.
Some 47 million visitors from the mainland streamed into Hong Kong last year, more than six times the city’s population.
While they have powered the local economy, by spending freely in luxury shops, malls, restaurants and hotels, the visitors have also been blamed for pushing up shop rents and property prices, as well as emptying local stores of products such as baby milk formula and cosmetics.
Travel industry executives say political tensions in Hong Kong, including the Occupy-Central demonstrations last year and recent protests against mainland shoppers in local malls, have discouraged tourists from the mainland. The travel industry has spoken out against the imposition of any curbs on visitors.
The Hong Kong government wouldn’t confirm the move yesterday, saying any announcement would come from Beijing. But it acknowledged that it had proposed to the central government concrete measures to adjust visas that currently allow permanent residents of Shenzhen multiple-entry to Hong Kong.
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