HZMB-Zhuhai records annual national high in motor traffic over Christmas

The last day of the recent Christmas holidays – Dec. 26 – saw on the Zhuhai border of the delta bridge the annual national peak of border-crossing motor traffic.

On that day, 115,000 walking travelers and over 17,000 motor vehicles crossed the Zhuhai checkpoint of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.

It was not only a new high in the bridge’s five-year history, but also a new high across all land border checkpoints across the country in this year, according to a report by local media Macao Daily News.

On each of the four days, the Zhuhai checkpoint saw border-crossing figures surpassing 100,000, with the four days having logged over 420,000 crossers. Among them, 316,000 were Macau and Hong Kong residents.

The influx of motor traffic was due to the fact that the bridge is the only available checkpoint for northbound vehicles from Macau and Hong Kong.

The four days have seen over 62,000 motor vehicles using the Zhuhai checkpoint, with the number of single-plate vehicles from Macau and Hong Kong nearing 10,000 on average per day during the holidays.

The newspaper cited a Zhuhai border official when reporting that the number of northbound vehicles from Hong Kong had surpassed those from Macau. This is the first time this has happened since the launch of the scheme in Hong Kong on July 1.

The number of Hong Kong vehicles was over 5,300 on average per day during the holidays, higher than that of Macau vehicles. However, the newspaper did not detail specific numbers for the latter.

As a much larger economy than Macau, Hong Kong also has more vehicles than its neighboring Special Administrative Region.

The official has also told the newspaper additional measures were enacted to smooth border clearance during the holidays.