Official figures from the Immigration Department showed that more than 610,000 inbound and outbound trips were made up until 4pm on the second day of the Easter holiday on Saturday.

Among them, nearly 70 percent, or about 410,000, were outbound trips primarily made by local residents.

Some 30 percent, or roughly 198,000, were inbound trips, with almost half of them also made by local residents.

Some residents said they chose to travel on Saturday to avoid the peak travel rush on Good Friday. Many were travelling to Zhuhai and Macau via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.

One resident, surnamed Tong, said to reporters that he specifically departed earlier in the morning as he knew there were large numbers of people at the checkpoint on Friday.

Another resident, surnamed Leung, said he planned to take his family to Zhuhai for two days, and estimated the trip would cost him several thousand yuan.

“It’s not that crowded at the checkpoint today, but we’ll choose to take a ferry to return to the city to avoid the crowd,” he said.

Also heading out of town, a local resident surnamed Lee said he would meet up with his friends in Zhuhai first before travelling to Guangzhou for three days.

“I knew it was the peak travel time yesterday, that’s why we chose to depart today,” he said.