5 million people travel land routes between HK, mainland during coming holiday season

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 ◆ 5 million people travel land routes between HK, mainland during coming holiday season

Hong Kong's Immigration Department estimated here Wednesday that people who will cross the land boundary checkpoints to and from the Chinese mainland will rise 10.5 percent from the same period last year.

About 5.14 million people will cross the land boundary checkpoints during the coming Christmas and New Year holiday period, said a spokesman with the Immigration Department.

The peak period of cross-boundary traffic during the Christmas and New Year holiday period will fall on between Dec. 20, 2002 and Jan. 2, 2003. It is estimated that about 4.15 million passengers will cross the boundary via the Lo Wu checkpoint, representing 81 percent of the total cross-boundary passenger traffic.

To cope with the traffic demands, the Immigration Department has arranged 101 officers to reinforce the boundary checkpoints during the festive period through internal deployment.

Furthermore, the Civil Aid Service will increase manpower to assist in providing crowd control services at Lo Wu checkpoint during the festive period.