Monday, April 13, 2015

China is to stop issuing multiple entry Hong Kong visas to residents of Shenzhen

China has made curbs on travel to Hong Kong to cool tensions over the growing influx of mainland shoppers, which has angered residents of the Asian financial hub.

The public security bureau in neighbouring Shenzhen will stop issuing multiple visit passes to people who live in the border city and instead issue only once-a-week travel passes, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Leung Chun-yin, the chief executive of the semi-autonomous territory confirmed those reports in saying on Monday that the visa arrangements is "a policy suggested by the Hong Kong government and adopted by the Central authorities".

An influx of millions of Chinese visitors to Hong Kong has prompted rallies by frustrated residents tired of seeing public transport clogged and shelves periodically wiped clean of daily necessities purchased for resale over the border.

The central government in Beijing has adjusted the travel policy because, "alongside the unceasing growth of mainland residents travelling to Hong Kong and growing pressure on mainland and Hong Kong immigration ports, there's growing contradiction between visitor numbers to Hong Kong and Hong Kong tourism's capability," the Xinhua report said.

Leung said: "anything that increases tensions between Hong Kong and mainland society is not tolerated".

The decision was aimed at curbing the practice of parallel trading, Leung said, in which mainlanders buy up daily necessities in Hong Kong then resell them in China's border towns to avoid tariffs.

Admitting that the move will not put an end completely to parallel trading, he added the government will continue to crack down on any illegal activities. He also said: "Anything that increases tensions between Hong Kong and the mainland society is not tolerated."

Hong Kong opened up to Chinese tourists in 2003 as part of a bid to revive its economy following an outbreak of the respiratory disease SARS, allowing mainland Chinese to visit as individual travellers rather than being part of an organised tour.

Last year alone an estimated 47 million tourists from China streamed to Hong Kong, dwarfing the city's population of seven million.

Leung said that about 4.6 million of the visitors made trips to Hong Kong more than once a week.

   [aljazeera.com]
13/4/15
--
-
Related:

1 comment :

  1. Pekín ha decidido reducir el flujo de entrada de chinos del interior a Hong Kong en un intento por reducir la tensión con la excolonia británica...

    La vecina ciudad de Shenzhen permitirá a partir de ahora que sus habitantes solo puedan viajar una vez por semana a Hong Kong, informa hoy la agencia de noticias Xinhua.

    Hasta ahora podían solicitar un visado sin limitaciones de entradas.

    La medida ha contado con el visto bueno del Consejo de Estado después de que el resentimiento a los turistas del interior hubiera disparado la conflictividad social en la isla.

    La agencia lo justifica por "la creciente contradicción entre el número de visitantes y la capacidad turística de Hong Kong".

    Más de 47 millones de chinos del interior visitaron el pasado año la excolonia, lo que supone un aumento del 16 % respecto al pasado año.

    De ellos, una décima parte viajaron a Hong Kong más de una vez por semana.

    China permitió en 2003 la visita de sus nacionales a la isla de forma privada, cuando antes solo se les permitía en grupo.

    La medida buscaba rescatar a Hong Kong cuando estaba siendo golpeada por la epidemia del SARS y el resto del mundo le daba la espalda.

    El sector turístico en la isla aumentó y los ingresos de muchos hongkoneses se vieron beneficiados por el flujo continuo de sus compatriotas.

    Pero la afluencia de turistas chinos del interior se ha convertido en un foco de tensiones crecientes.

    Muchos hongkoneses lamentan que los chinos del interior vacían las tiendas de bienes básicos, desde leche infantil a medicinas, y saturan servicios públicos como hospitales y guarderías.

    La prensa local más hostil con Pekín ha comparado a los turistas del interior con plagas de langostas..............http://sptnkne.ws/deQ
    13/4/15

    ReplyDelete

Only News

Featured Post

“The U.S. must stop supporting terrorists who are destroying Syria and her people" : US Congresswoman, Tulsi Gabbard

US Congresswoman, Tulsi Gabbard, recently visited Syria, and even met with President Bashar Al-Assad. She also visited the recently libe...

Blog Widget by LinkWithin