The new Hengqin immigration port to facilitate travel between Macao and Zhuhai – in South China’s Guangdong province – was officially put into use on Tuesday, part of a new step to boost the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Dubbed a “super passage,” the main working area of the Hengqin immigration building has a total floor area of 450,000 square metres, equivalent to 63 football fields.
The new border has a designed daily capacity of 222,000 passengers, which can help ease the pressure of Gongbei and Lotus borders and increase the daily capacity for passenger flow between Guangdong and Macao from 750,000 to 900,000.
Gongbei border has long been the main passenger channel between Zhuhai and Macao.
All passenger clearance services and Macao-bound vehicle clearance services – once operated in Macao’s Lotus Flower Bridge Checkpoint – are relocated to the new Hengqin border.
In 2019, a total of 145 million passengers crossed the border, ranking first in China for eight consecutive years.
However, the Gongbei border has been running far beyond its designed capacity, thus resulting in a series of issues such as prolonged queuing time and slow customs clearance procedures.
PHOTO © Xinhua News Agency
