How Guangdong drivers are celebrating Lunar New Year in Hong Kong

Some of the around 500 Guangdong motorists in the southbound travel scheme drove into Hong Kong’s urban areas during the Lunar New Year holiday for offbeat sightseeing and festive shopping. Authorities said bookings under the “Southbound Travel for Guangdong Vehicles” scheme were “favourable”, with more than 500 cars entering the city in the early days of the holiday. Visitors were spotted driving left-hand vehicles with FT-prefixed plates. A Mini Cooper stopped at the Kowloon Peak viewing point at dusk on Wednesday, while a Mercedes-Benz visited Shing Mun Country Park to watch monkeys. Guangzhou resident Harry Liu drove to Hong Kong for a one-day trip on February 14. “I’m a fan of Hong Kong’s car culture, so I wanted to see how local owners modify their vehicles and chat with them about cars,” the 29-year-old who owns a Mercedes-Benz said. To save costs, Liu chose to stay overnight in Zhuhai instead of Hong Kong. Before his Lunar New Year visit, he had driven to the city once under the scheme to take photos of his car against the Hong Kong skyline. On his latest trip, Liu arrived in the afternoon, visited the scenic village of Shek O, stopped by a second-hand car shop in Central to browse vintage cars and learned more about how local enthusiasts modify their vehicles. He also visited a Mercedes-Benz showroom to compare models available on both sides of the border. Mainland Chinese authorities waived tolls on the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge and other expressways during the Lunar New Year holiday from February 15 to 23, prompting Liu to make his trip during that period. “I could save about 600 yuan in tolls for a round trip from Guangzhou,” he said, adding that he might visit again before the end of the holiday. “In the future, I’d also like to visit the Chinese University of Hong Kong campus and Kennedy Town.” Eason Chong, a Guangzhou resident working in the automobile industry, also drove to Hong Kong and spent two days on February 12 and 13 to buy Lunar New Year gifts. It was his second trip under the scheme. Taking advantage of the weaker Hong Kong dollar against the renminbi, Chong and his family of four spent about 20,000 yuan (US$2,900) on shopping, meals and accommodation. “It’s much more convenient than taking a bus or the high-speed train,” 32-year-old Chong said. “We do not have to carry all our shopping around.” While the booking process was a bit complicated and required planning several days in advance, Chong described driving in Hong Kong as a pleasant experience. “Drivers strictly follow traffic rules, pedestrians do not run red lights and no electric bikes are weaving around,” he said, adding that it was also easy to find parking spaces. Electric bikes are highly popular in Guangzhou, with their numbers reaching into the millions. They are widely seen as a road safety hazard. Chong said he planned to drive to Hong Kong again for future holidays. Launched in late December 2025, the Southbound Travel for Guangdong Vehicles (Entry into Urban Area) scheme allows approved private cars from the neighbouring province to enter Hong Kong directly via the mega bridge. Under the scheme, motorists can stay for up to three days, with a daily quota of 100 vehicles. In a reply to the South China Morning Post, the Transport Department said it expected about 500 Guangdong vehicles to enter urban areas in the first few days of the holiday, with about half staying in Hong Kong for one to two days. “Travel bookings under the scheme were favourable during the [Lunar] New Year period,” it said, adding that the level was in line with the authorities’ expectations. The department said more than 3,000 applicants had obtained eligibility to enter Hong Kong’s urban areas, and over 1,500 had already travelled to the city since the scheme’s launch.