More than 7.5 million inbound and outbound passenger trips were taped through the Zhuhai port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in the very first quarter (Q1) of 2025, a boost of 23 percent year on year and a record high, main information showed on Monday.The bridge managed more than 1.56 million incoming and outgoing lorry journeys in the first 3 months, marking a boost of 31 percent year on year.The 55-kilometer bridge links Chinas Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), the Macao SAR, and the city of Zhuhai in Guangdong Province.
It is the worlds longest bridge-and-tunnel sea crossing.The rapidly growing increase of visitors from Hong Kong and Macao to the Chinese mainland has actually ended up being a major element driving the boost in port traffic.More than 880,000 journeys by vehicles with plates from Hong Kong or Macao were tape-recorded at the port in Q1, up by 34 percent, and 4.1 million passenger trips were made by Hong Kong and Macao residents via the port throughout the same duration, representing 54.6 percent of the overall circulation of passengers.Notably, over 120,000 journeys made by foreign visitors were tape-recorded at the port in Q1, up by 22 percent year on year and a record high.
Among them, more than 20,000 incoming trips were made visa-free, a rise of 122 percent year on year.Since November 2023, China has constantly changed and enhanced its visa-free transit policy to improve openness and people-to-people exchanges.
In 2015, over 20.1 million foreign visitors got in China under the visa exemption policy, marking a year-on-year boost of 113.5 percent in qualified transit visa-exemption tourists.