Shenzhen Business Daily Reading Client Reporter Ren Jianxin
At about 9 o'clock in the morning on July 1, at the Liantang Port at the junction of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, a tour group composed of elderly people cleared customs and entered the country in an orderly manner, and the destination was Zhongshan City...... Today is also the first time for this tour group to experience the Shenzhong Passage!
A bridge flying frame, the weather is thousands. After seven years, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor, a super project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, was officially opened to traffic on June 30, 2024, shortening the original two-hour drive between Shenzhen and Zhongshan to less than half an hour, which not only breaks the time and space barriers between the two places, promotes the interconnection of the Greater Bay Area city agglomeration, but also shortens the psychological distance between the people of the Bay Area, and opens up a new space for integration.
"The opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor is the most intuitive reflection of the Liantang Port, an important cross-border transportation hub and tourism distribution center in the eastern part of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, that it has stimulated the enthusiasm of more mainland, Hong Kong and Macao residents for tourism!" According to the relevant person in charge of the Liantang Border Inspection Station, the food tour group from Hong Kong to Zhongshan, Foshan, Qingyuan and other places through the Liantang Port for two to three days is one of the preferred cross-border tourism routes for many Hong Kong residents, and it is very popular; Tour groups from various provinces and cities travel to and from Hong Kong and Macao through Liantang Port, and there is an endless stream every day. The opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor has made this journey more convenient.
Nowadays, the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Passage has been opened, and the spectacular bridge scene and the heavy equipment of the big country have also become the new "check-in points" for many cross-border tourists, and they have been included in the "must-go itinerary". According to the statistics of the Liantang Border Inspection Station, on June 29, 30 and July 1, Hong Kong residents ushered in a three-day holiday, and more than 180,000 inbound and outbound passengers entered and exited through the Liantang Port in the first two days, and the number of Hong Kong residents entering and exiting the country increased by about 70% compared with normal days.
The reporter learned that most of the tour groups entering the country through the Liantang Port did not take cross-border buses, but rented buses in the mainland in advance, and then took the bus together to the destination after the tour group entered the country.
"Our tour group was launched on June 29, although it did not catch up with the opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Channel, but it was already July to return to Hong Kong and Macao, and the return itinerary specially included the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Channel, so you can enjoy the beautiful scenery on the bridge at that time!" A tour guide told reporters.
In recent years, the transportation interconnection of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has been continuously improved, which has effectively deepened the integration and coordinated development of the region. As the first large-scale interconnection infrastructure between Shenzhen and Hong Kong completed and put into use in the context of the Greater Bay Area, since its full opening in 2023, Liantang Port has attracted many people to exchange and promote the convenient flow of factors, and the port flow has jumped to the forefront of the country, and the cross-border economy has gradually become large-scale.
Nowadays, the new opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Corridor, the "golden channel" of the Bay Area, will further accelerate the flow of factors in the region, and all kinds of personnel exchanges, economic and trade exchanges will become more frequent and close, which will have a positive impact on the Liantang Port in connecting Shenzhen and Hong Kong and radiating the Bay Area.
In order to facilitate the exchange and interconnection of the Greater Bay Area, the Liantang Border Inspection Station has actively promoted the transformation of "hard connection" to "soft connection" and "heart-to-heart integration", launched more than 20 measures to improve the level of customs clearance service guarantee at the port, and issued a package list for improving the quality and efficiency of service development, promoting the transformation of customs clearance flow into incremental development and helping to accelerate the formation of the "one-hour living circle" in the Greater Bay Area.
In July, the summer transportation is coming, and the Liantang Port is expected to usher in the peak of normal passenger and vehicle flow. In this regard, the Liantang Border Inspection Station said that it will continue to deepen the facilitation of all kinds of tourism, research, economy and trade, exhibitions and other personnel and teams to travel smoothly, efficiently ensure the smooth flow of cross-border trucks carrying electronic products, new energy vehicles, gold and jewelry to the Bay Area, promote the integration of customs clearance acceleration and economic warming, and promote the efficient flow and allocation of various elements such as people, logistics, capital flow, and information flow, so as to add strong momentum to the deep integration and high-quality development of the Greater Bay Area.