China yesterday resumed high-speed rail services between Hong Kong and the mainland for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it dismantles travel curbs after Beijing scrapped quarantine for arrivals a week earlier.
The reopening came amid a massive wave of infections nationwide and a day after authorities said that nearly 60,000 people with COVID-19 had died in hospitals, following last month’s abrupt U-turn on China’s “zero COVID-19” policy in the wake of historic protests.
Despite the case surge, some passengers voiced excitement and relief about being able to more easily return to their hometowns ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.
Photo: Bloomberg
“The resumption of the high-speed railway has made it very convenient for us and has brought us closer to home,” said Mang Lee, 33, who was among dozens going through border checks at Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Station before boarding trains.
“For the past three years, due to the pandemic, it has not been easy to enter China in any way,” said Meng, who is originally from the southern city of Guangzhou. “I have not been able to go home for a long time.”
A surge in travel ahead of the holiday celebrations set to begin on Saturday, with hundreds of millions of people expected to return home from cities to small towns and rural areas, has fueled worries about more infections.
Saturday’s updated death toll was a huge increase over previous figures, following global criticism of China’s COVID-19 data.
Operations at West Kowloon Station were smooth, with a flow of about 1,400 passengers by10 am, said Cheung Chi-Keung (張志強), head of train operator MTR Corp’s cross-boundary operations.
Tickets for nearly all trains were sold out yesterday, a display at the station showed.
The reopening would initially be just for short journeys, MTR chairman Rex Auyeung (歐陽伯權) told reporters at the station.
Hong Kong Secretary of Transport and Logistics Lam Sai-hung (林世雄) said he could not confirm when longer journeys would resume, but that would be after talks with mainland authorities.
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