An Expansive Rail Network Fuels Thriving Two-Way Travel
On March 3, at the press conference for the Third Session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), spokesperson Liu Jieyi highlighted that Hong Kong's integration into the national development framework is deepening, with "northbound and southbound travel" becoming an increasingly popular trend.
On June 15, 2024, China's railway network will undergo a schedule adjustment, introducing the first-ever overnight high speed sleeper trains from Beijing to Shanghai and from Shanghai to Hong Kong. This will significantly reduce travel time between these major cities and Hong Kong. With an extensive and well-connected railway network, passengers from Hong Kong West Kowloon Railway Station can now travel directly to 54 cities across 16 provinces, strengthening the ties between the "Pearl of the Orient" and the mainland of China.
In 2024, the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High Speed Railway recorded 30.378 million cross-boundary passenger trips, a 37.2% increase from 2023, fostering greater people-to-people exchanges and economic collaboration between Hong Kong and the mainland. Following the first-quarter timetable adjustment, the number of daily Trains between Hong Kong and the Mainland services on this line increased to 242, with new direct routes from Xi'anbei, Wuhan and Jieyang to Hong Kong West Kowloon Railway Station.
As Fuxing EMU trains shuttle back and forth, the travel time between Hong Kong and mainland cities continues to shrink. Seamless cross-boundary commuting, once a vision, has now become an everyday reality.
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