Macao enjoys more cross-border travels thanks to facilitation schemes

China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) has seen an evident rise in cross-border travels thanks to the new individual visit scheme that includes more mainland cities and new facilitation arrangements at the ports.

Starting from March 6, Xi'an City, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, and Qingdao City in east China's Shandong Province are eligible to issue individual travel endorsements for trips to Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions. On May 27, eight more cities on the Chinese mainland including Taiyuan in Shanxi Province, Harbin in Heilongjiang Province and Lanzhou in Gansu Province were added to the individual visit scheme of Hong Kong and Macao SARs.

So far residents and holders of residence permits of 59 cities in total can submit applications at the entry and exit service counters of local public security organs, or use the smart endorsement equipment there, for individual travel endorsement.

In May this year, China Exit and Entry Administration introduced new facilitation schemes, allowing mainland visitors to cross the Hengqin-Macao border multiple times.

Hengqin is an area located in the southern part of Zhuhai city in Guangdong Province, just adjacent to Macao. Visitors from the Chinese mainland who sign up for the Macao-Hengqin tour groups can make multiple trips between the two places through the Hengqin Port within the visa validity period (seven days) after the first entry into Macao.

"Now our motherland is developing really well and there are more travels. For visits to Macao, this port is my first choice. The supporting facilities here are complete, and it is very convenient for us to go through the customs check here," said Ms. Wu, a tourist from Jiangmen City of Guangdong.

"We came here with our friends to spend three to four days in Macao. (The customs clearance at Hengqin Port) is very clean and orderly, and also very smooth," said Ms. Shen, a tourist from Zhejiang Province.

According to data from the Statistics and Census Service of the Macao SAR, in the first 10 months of 2024, 1.691 million tourists entered Macao in package tours, a year-on-year increase of 84.9 percent. The average room occupancy rate of Macao hotel industry establishments was 85.6 percent, a year-on-year increase of 4.8 percentage points. Meanwhile The number of Macao residents purchasing outbound travel services through travel agencies reached 473,000, a year-on-year increase of 44.8 percent.

Macao enjoys more cross-border travels thanks to facilitation schemes

The sixth China-Russia Media Forum, which was held in Beijing on Tuesday, discussed promoting friendship between and supporting development of the two countries through media cooperation.

Li Shulei, who is a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended the forum and delivered a keynote speech.

Attendees said that under the strategic guidance of heads of the two countries, China-Russia relations have maintained stable, healthy and high-level development, creating a model for a new type of international relations and relations between neighboring major countries.

In May this year, the heads of state of the two countries signed and issued a joint statement on further deepening the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era, explicitly proposing deepened cooperation in the media sector between the two countries.

The media sectors of China and Russia should fully implement the important consensus reached between the heads of state, adhere consistently to the general direction of the China-Russia friendship, and foster a positive public opinion atmosphere for the common development of China and Russia, attendees said.

They also said that the media of the two countries should focus on major issues such as the alignment of China's 15th Five-Year Plan with Russia's economic and social development strategies, and report in depth on achievements of mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields.

They noted that the media should build bridges of people-to-people connectivity, promote exchange and mutual learning between the Chinese and Russian civilizations, join hands to address the challenges of digital and intelligent transformation, and work together to enhance the influence of the media.

The forum was hosted by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Russian Presidential Executive Office, and organized by China's Xinhua News Agency and Russia's TASS News Agency.

Approximately 140 officials and media representatives from both countries attended the forum. During the event, the two sides signed 11 documents on deepening media cooperation between China and Russia.

6th China-Russia Media Forum eyes supporting development of both countries