About 720,000 enter and exit HK on New Year's Eve, with overall smooth operation in control points: Tang Ping-keung

In the early hours of today (Jan. 1), a New Year's Eve fireworks countdown event was held by the Victoria Harbour. The Lo Wu Control Point extended its operating hours by two hours until 2 a.m., while the Shenzhen Bay Control Point operated 24 hours.

The Secretary for Security, Tang Ping-keung, inspected the operations at the Lo Wu Control Point after midnight and met with the media, stating that the last East Rail train left the city at 12:56 a.m. and arrived at Lo Wu around 1:46 a.m. The situation at the Lo Wu Control Point was very orderly, with citizens waiting only a few minutes at most to cross.

Tang said that a total of 119 channels were open at the Lo Wu Control Point today, including both manual and e-channels. To accommodate the expected influx of visitors heading north in the evening, many staff members at the control point canceled their leave and were redeployed.

He mentioned that approximately 720,000 people entered and exited Hong Kong through land control points on the last day of 2024. This number was slightly higher than usual weekend figures. After midnight today, around 7,000 people crossed at Lo Wu, about 1,900 at Shenzhen Bay, approximately 2,800 at the Lok Ma Chau Control Point, and around 1,500 at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Control Point. Essentially, citizens did not need to queue and could cross directly, with those using passenger vehicles also experiencing minimal wait times.

He stated that the traffic was very smooth overall. The Customs, Immigration Department, and Police Force have activated a cross-department joint command center, and the Security Bureau has also initiated an emergency monitoring and support center at the government headquarters.

He expressed gratitude to the relevant mainland departments for making special arrangements due to the higher flow of people, and also thanked the colleagues from Customs, Immigration, Police, and other departments for helping citizens during the festival.

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