Alert raised as holiday crowds overwhelm Hong Kong’s revamped Huanggang crossing

Massive holiday crowds and immigration bottlenecks overwhelmed Hong Kong’s newly revamped Huanggang Port on Sunday, prompting authorities to issue their first “busy” alert just six days after the border crossing reopened.

The 24-hour land crossing between Hong Kong and mainland China, which reopened on October 12, logged over 130,000 passenger trips on Saturday as it kicked off its opening weekend alongside the three-day Chung Yeung Festival holiday, according to official data.

Outbound passenger traffic at the checkpoint was “exceptionally heavy” between 10am and 2pm on Sunday, logging more than 30,000 departures, according to the Immigration Department. The surge prompted officers to open all inspection counters and implement tidal crowd-control measures to ease congestion.

For the first time, the Hong Kong Security Bureau issued the “busy” advisory on its “Easy Boundary” platform for border clearance at Huanggang at about 1.45pm on Sunday, telling departing travellers to expect wait times of up to 45 minutes for border clearance. The status was updated back to “normal” by 3.30pm.

In contrast, the operations of the seven other land crossings, including Lo Wu, Lok Ma Chau Spur Line, and Shenzhen Bay, remained “normal” throughout the morning and early afternoon on Sunday according to the online platform, with clearance times as short as five minutes.

By noon on Sunday, social media platforms were flooded with posts warning others not to use the new port, with images of long queues and huge crowds swamping the departure hall. Some mainland visitors claimed they had to queue for two hours to clear immigration.

Posts on the popular mainland social media platform RedNote suggested that the chaos was primarily caused by large crowds flocking to traditional manual immigration booths.

One user complained: “Huangguang Port should not be opened if it is not ready yet. It took me 1.5 hours to get from Hong Kong to Shenzhen.”

Another wrote: “The queues were chaotic, unmanaged. The staff seemed clueless. The officers did not seem to know what was going on. Despite good facilities, poor management makes for a terrible experience.”

In a Facebook post on Sunday afternoon, Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung said on-site management had been strengthened to cope with the crowds and urged travellers to avoid using the checkpoint during peak hours.

“Citizens and travellers are requested to follow the instructions of on-site staff and use the traditional manual counters or self-service gates in an orderly manner,” he wrote.

“To avoid long waiting times, please plan your journey in advance and try to avoid crossing the border during peak hours,” he added.