Hong Kong saw over 100,000 mainland tourists visiting the city to celebrate the Year of the Horse as the festive period across the border began on Sunday.

The official Lunar New Year holiday on the mainland lasts for nine days, and Hong Kong officials had earlier estimated that total arrivals and departures through the city's border crossings during the festive period to reach almost 11.4 million.

Among those arriving in the SAR was a tourist from Xinjiang surnamed Tang, who first flew to Shenzhen before taking the high-speed rail to the West Kowloon terminus. She plans to stay in the city for five days.

"We will go watch the fireworks, and also the float parade. We also hope to visit the temple to burn the first incense stick of the year to pray for good fortune for my family in the Year of the Horse," Tang told RTHK.

For a Shenzhen visitor surnamed Wang, she decided to stay a night in Hong Kong and said accommodations cost less before the Lunar New Year.

"I noticed that accommodations became more expensive in the coming few days...costing about 800 yuan more," she said.

Also arriving via the high-speed rail was a traveller surnamed Zhao, who said: "We thought it would take one to two hours to pass through immigration. But it was quite fast. It only took 20 minutes."

Immigration authorities recorded over 240,000 arrivals as of 4pm, with nearly 113,000 of them coming from the mainland.
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Last updated: 2026-02-15 HKT 18:03