Surge in travellers at Huanggang Port border crossing

The revamped Huanggang Port continues to see huge crowds crossing the border on the second day of the Chung Yeung long weekend.

As of the first two hours since noon, the Security Bureau said it recorded an eightfold increase in people flow at the upgraded port compared to its predecessor.

This as authorities have opened up all channels to allow for smoother travels.

The revamped Huanggang Port remained packed with crowds even after the people flow reached its peak at 2 p.m.

At the facility's public transport interchange, a continuous flow of vehicles made its way to the border-crossing checkpoint.

The government initially guided travellers on the L2 level separately to escalators and elevators to the building's exits.

This as the Security Bureau noted waiting times reached between half an hour to 45 minutes during peak periods.

Ms. Lee, who went to the Huanggang Port at 12:15 p.m., said she was surprised that local staff required her and several others to wait, adding that she was unsure what happened.

She called the whole cross-border experience disappointing.

Beside crowd-related issues, the border-crossing facility's hardware also experienced some hiccups.

This man said the person in front of him spent 10 minutes just trying to get past the border, saying that he was unsure if it had something to do with the fingerprint system.

While this woman said she had to handle her daughter's birth certificate since she was born in Shenzhen, stressing she spent half an hour at the port and had to resort to using the traditional cross-border counters.

Meanwhile, the Security Bureau said the Huanggang Port recorded a noticeable increase in northbound visitors starting at 11 a.m., with the figure reaching 19,000 between noon and 2 p.m., which is an eightfold increase compared to the previous port.