The West Kowloon Station in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has added trains to cope with the growing travel demand during the holiday season of Christmas and New Year's Day.
By 08:00 on Wednesday morning, the West Kowloon Station experienced a notable surge in passengers in the waiting hall, with long queues at each ticket checkpoint.
The station has launched round-trip train services for travelers to and from popular destinations such as Zhangjiajie in central China's Hunan Province and Chaozhou and Shantou cities in south China's Guangdong Province.
"We already had several tour groups set up over a month ago. Our list of travelers kept growing before departure," said Cheng In-fai, a tour group leader.
"It takes about 40 minutes from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. It's quite convenient," said Mrs. Chan, a traveler from Hong Kong.
Currently, high-speed trains from Hong Kong can directly reach 80 stations in the mainland, passing through 11 provinces, one autonomous region, and four municipalities.
To facilitate travelers, the border inspection station at the West Kowloon Station has increased personnel and opened all inspection channels.
From 06:30 on Wednesday to 11:00 on Thursday, the station handled more than 127,000 inbound and outbound passengers, with over 86,000 inbound passengers, and among them inbound Hong Kong and Macao travelers accounted for 67.4 percent.
Starting on January 5, 2025, the Shenzhen North Railway Station in Guangdong Province will launch an additional 14 multiple unit trains departing from and terminating at the station.
These trains will connect West Kowloon, Shanwei, Chaozhou and Shantou in Guangdong, Huangshan North in east China's Anhui Province, Shanghai, and Zhangjiagang City in Jiangsu Province.
Kowloon station in HK add trains for holiday rush
China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao outlined the key priorities of the 32nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting, which opened on Friday in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province.
In an interview with CGTN ahead of the two-day meeting, Wang said free trade, digital cooperation and green economy are high on the agenda of the meeting.
"The key areas include advancing regional economic integration and the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, supporting the World Trade Organization (WTO) in strengthening digital cooperation and developing green economy. At present, the international situation is marked by intertwined turbulence and chaos, with intensified geopolitical instability. The rise of unilateralism and protectionism poses serious challenges to the international economic and trade order, disrupting global and Asia-Pacific development. Against this backdrop, all parties have higher expectations for this trade ministers' meeting, hoping that it can build consensus and deliver outcomes," Wang said.
This year marks China's third time hosting the APEC meetings and the 35th anniversary of its membership.
By 2025, China had become the largest trading partner of 13 APEC economies. Trade between China and APEC economies reached 3.7 trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for 57.8 percent of China's total foreign trade.
China has signed 24 free trade agreements or economic and trade arrangements with 31 countries and regions, including 15 APEC economies. In recent years, China has also completed upgrades of free trade agreements with APEC economies such as Singapore and Peru.
The minister said that China has always been a firm supporter and an important contributor to APEC.
"We have actively shared our vast market and development opportunities with all parties. China's door to the world will only open wider and wider. Facing the common challenges, China will continue to fulfill its responsibilities as a major country, further deepen reform, expand high-standard opening-up, and continue to provide new opportunities for the Asia-Pacific region and the world with its new achievements in Chinese modernization," the minister said.
China's Commerce Minister outlines priorities for 32nd APEC trade ministers' meeting
