A cross-border travel arrangement that lets Chinese mainland motorists drive into Hong Kong for tourism purposes will be extended to Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan, Huizhou and Zhaoqing in Guangdong province starting Saturday.
With these cities set to be added to the eligible list, the Southbound Travel Scheme for Guangdong Vehicles will cover all nine mainland cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, an economic and megalopolis region spanning 56,000 square kilometers and home to over 86 million people.
The arrangement is at present available to motorists from four Guangdong cities: Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Jiangmen and Zhongshan, with a daily quota of 100 vehicles able to make the crossing.
The addition of another five cities to the program will double the daily reservation slots to 200 vehicles. But the permissible duration of each visit will remain capped at three days.
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To facilitate travel for the expanded pool of drivers, the Airport Authority Hong Kong on Saturday will launch an enhanced “Park and Fly” automated port carpark service at the Hong Kong Port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB), which will open to motorists from all nine mainland cities under the travel program.
Officials from Guangdong and Hong Kong earlier said they will track the program’s operation closely, with plans to extend it to all 21 cities in the province by the first quarter of 2027, subject to implementation reviews.
Rolled out in stages, the southbound travel program first enabled parking at the HZMB Hong Kong Port on Nov 15, 2025, before allowing the first batch of Guangdong private cars to drive directly into downtown Hong Kong via the bridge on Dec 23, 2025.
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The Hong Kong Transport Department’s latest data shows that as of mid-July, more than 13,000 applications had been logged for entry into Hong Kong’s urban areas via the program, of which over 11,000 had been given the green light. Cumulative reservations have meanwhile crossed the 9,000-vehicle mark.
Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com
