The Nanfang Home

The Nanfang / Blog

Border Crossing

Speed Boat Carrying Illegal Border Crossers to Guangdong Sinks [UPDATED]

Posted: 09/10/2014 7:27 am

speed boatA speed boat illegally entering into Mainland China has sunk off the coast of Zhuhai. One person has been rescued but nine remain missing, reports CCTV.

The ship sank sometime around four o’clock yesterday morning (September 9) about a nautical mile off Zhuhai’s shore in Guangdong Province. Nine people on board were passengers, while one was the ship’s captain.

The sole survivor said everyone aboard the ship were mainland Chinese, and they were trying to get themselves from Macau back to the Mainland. Only six out of the ten people aboard were wearing a life preserver at the time of the ship’s sinking.

The boat is registered in Hong Kong, and is a seven meter-long watercraft.

An ongoing search for the missing people includes the border police, the fisheries department, the marine police, and the No. 1 contingent of the South China Sea Aviation support unit.

UPDATE 10:46am September 9: As of 10am this morning, there has been no new developments to this story, Xinhuanet reports.

Photo: taopic

Haohao
Tagged:

Hong Kong Arrests 23 Mainlanders in Prostitution Raid

Posted: 08/29/2014 8:31 am
vice sting hong kong prostituion

Picture from a story that took place in September, 2001.

Hong Kong Police along with Hong Kong immigration agents, arrested 23 Chinese mainland citizens in a prostitution raid, reports Sina.

The arrests were made in Yuen Long on August 27, located in the northwest of Hong Kong’s New Territories. The raid happened on Onning Road, Tunglok Street, Saufuk Street, and Chingsaan Road.

The arrested, aged 18 to 46, are suspected of staying in Hong Kong too long in violation of their visas.

All arrested parties have been detained and are being questioned by customs agents.

Photo: CCTV

Haohao
Tagged:

Hong Kongers May Get Reprieve If Special Mall For Mainland Shoppers Opens in Shenzhen

Posted: 06/25/2014 12:54 pm

qianhai economic zoneHong Kongers have long complained of Mainland shoppers clogging streets and crowding the city’s famous MTR subway system, but it looks like some hope may be on the horizon.

Qianhai, a special economic zone in northwestern Shenzhen, may be home to a “mini Hong Kong” featuring a special shopping mall with Hong Kong brands,  reports The Standard.

The Qianhai Management Authority revealed they are currently negotiating with Hong Kong merchants as they showed off the proposed area to Hong Kong and mainland media.

The report states that the Qianhai Management Authority plans to have the shopping mall developed and operational by the end of this year. However, the same report quotes Qianhai authority spokesman Wang Jinxia pouring a bit of cold water on the plan.

“The concept of setting up a shopping center in Qianhai to provide another choice for mainlanders is purely exploratory at this stage.”

The Qianhai Management Authority said the shopping center will be able to ease pressure on Hong Kong from the flood of visitors under the individual travel scheme. However, data shows that mainland visitors to Hong Kong dropped during the Labor Day long weekend, the first such drop since 2003. From May 1 to 3, there were only 388,070 visitors to Hong Kong, a drop of 1.7%.

And yet, others have been suggesting that mainland visitors who want to shop for Hong Kong goods be able to do so without having downtown Hong Kong involved in the process. The Heung Yee Kuk, a rural Hong Kong group, has recommended the establishment of a shopping center in Sha Tau Kok to divert mainland shoppers from the cool parts of town that Hong Kongers frequent.

This all sounds like a good idea that should have been implemented years ago, but one factor still remains unresolved. Wang stated that the Qianhai Management Authority has still has not yet decided whether the sales of Hong Kong products in the new “mini Hong Kong” will be tax-free.

For that, we may have to wait until the end of the year when the mall is finally completed or exploratory plans have been confirmed.

Photos: Hexun

Haohao
Tagged:

New app gives waiting times at all Shenzhen-Hong Kong border crossings

Posted: 12/6/2013 11:00 am

This falls under the “extremely useful information” category: the Hong Kong government has just released a mobile application that shows users how long waits are at six border crossings between the SAR and Shenzhen.

There was once a day when an app like this wasn’t needed. Few Mainlanders had the ability to get into Hong Kong, and the crossings were relatively stable. But as the individual visitor scheme has expanded, more and more Mainland tourists have been flooding into Hong Kong. About 35 million Mainlanders visit per year, with that expected to increase to 50 million by 2015. This has meant waits at some border crossings – hello, Shenzhen Bay? – that are two and three hours long.

The app won’t win any awards for UI design, but it tells you what you need to know. It lists the wait at each border crossing in either direction, as well as the opening hours of each crossing.

The app also has the unfortunate name of HK ImmD. You can download it for iOS and Android.

(h/t @SlackerScholar)

Haohao
Tagged:

Macau buckles under the weight of mainland tourists, considering limiting visitors

Posted: 03/14/2013 4:39 pm

Macau has been reaping the benefits of an influx of money entering its vast casino resorts in recent years, most of which comes from the deep pockets of wealthy, mainland gambling addicts.

But the millions of mainlanders that pour over the border each year are causing the same problems in Macau that they cause in Hong Kong: namely, they put a severe strain on local infrastructure.

Tourism chiefs have announced a series of measures including looking at a quota on the number of tourists going into the territory and showcasing its less well-known attractions to offset the traffic the most popular attractions get. A review of Macau’s individual visitor scheme is also underway to look at ways of stemming the flow of tourists.

Reducing the number of people who can enter Macau would likely have a positive effect on the border immigration process, which is known for its marathon-long queues. At the moment, 28 million people visit the gambling enclave each year.

Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, the director of Macau Government Tourist Office, told SCMP:

“We will see how we can, through booklets, maps and signage, direct visitors from [the worst crowded] tourist areas to nearby places that are also rich in historical and cultural colour.”

When asked about slapping limits or quotas on the number of tourists, Ms Fernandes refused to comment or rule out the idea, which was initially put forward by the Macau Policy Research Office, a think tank in the territory.

In reaction to the current situation, a new 24-hour border crossing is being proposed to cope with future demand.

The move would alleviate the stress of transiting through Gongbei Port, which has become a key rail hub for high-speed trains to Guangzhou and beyond.

Image: Danny Lee

Haohao
Tagged:

Halleujah! Hong Kong passport stamps to be long gone from next month

Posted: 02/9/2013 8:09 am

Everybody who lives in the PRD knows how annoying it can be as your passport fills up with Hong Kong SAR stamps each time you cross the border.  But relief is on the way, as Hong Kong is phasing out the passport stamp in favour of a piece of paper.

From next month, passports will no longer be marked, and instead, travellers will be given a slip on entry outlining the terms and conditions of staying in the territory.

This will be a huge help, especially to laowai who frequently visit Hong Kong. It doesn’t take long to fill up a passport when Hong Kong issues two stamps on entry, and another on exit. Combined with mainland China’s entry and exit stamps, that’s five stamps per trip.

This writer’s passport was replaced within a year of living in the PRD. 25 trips to HK = a lot of stamps.

SCMP has more on how it will all work in the future:

The slip of computer-generated paper will carry the visitor’s name, travel document number, arrival date and the date the visitor permitted to remain until… Even if visitors lose the slip they will still be able to leave Hong Kong when they present their travel documents, because their information has been stored in the computer.

It’s a win for foreigners with more room for more travel in Hong Kong and elsewhere.

The Immigration Department, in a fine example of Hong Kong’s noted efficiency, says using the slip of paper will save each visitor 3 seconds when they cross the border.

Haohao
Tagged:

New 24-hour border crossing between Zhuhai and Macau proposed

Posted: 05/29/2012 10:08 am

Gongbei Port may soon have some competition

Anybody who has crossed at Gongbei Port has surely noticed the insane crowds of people moving back and forth.  Macau is a gambling haven for Mainland Chinese who are fortunate enough to get a travel permit, but the city is a whole lot more than just gaming; many Zhuhai residents cross into Macau to do their grocery shopping, and vice versa.  It’s not uncommon to see hundreds of elderly people walking across with grocery bags full of cooking items.  The result is sometimes a 30-40 minute wait – or longer – to get across.

To tackle the problem, Macau is proposing to build a second crossing with Zhuhai that would remain open 24-hours a day.

MacauBusiness.com says it would be equipped to handle 250,000 crossings per day.

The new checkpoint will be located where the Nam Yuet wholesale market now is, and will be for pedestrians only, however all details – including its operating hours – still need to receive approval from Beijing.

As construction hasn’t even started, it will be a while yet before you can make use of the new crossing.  Building an alternative to Gongbei is a good idea though, considering Macau’s casino business is booming.  Its gaming revenues are now five times what Las Vegas pulls in, making it easily the biggest gambling mecca on the planet.

Despite Macau’s staggering growth, many believe this is just the beginning.  Large casino operators are looking to cash in on the growing numbers of affluent people in China and Southeast Asia.

 

 

Haohao
Tagged:
Popular Stories
AROUND THE WEB
Keep in Touch

What's happening this week in Shenzhen, Dongguan and Guangzhou? Sign up to be notified when we launch the This Week @ Nanfang newsletter.

sign up for our newsletter

Nanfang TV