The first batch of cross-boundary vehicles on Wednesday left the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities to drive on the world's longest cross-sea bridge.The 55-km bridge connects China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) in the east and the Macao SAR and Zhuhai of Guangdong Province in the west.The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is the result of nine years of construction.The bridge officially opened to public traffic at 9:00 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) on Wednesday, as the first batch of travelers entered the service hall for customs clearance.At 9:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT) the first batch of cross-border buses full of passengers, as well as other vehicles hit the road on the bridge for Macao or Zhuhai on the other ends of the Y-shaped bridge.Without the bridge, drivers from Hong Kong, which faces Zhuhai across the Lingding Channel had to detour via several cities including Shenzhen and Dongguan to reach Zhuhai and other cities in the western part of Guangdong.Crossing the mega bridge is a bucket list experience for many residents. A Hong Kong resident surnamed Lee in his 70s was one of them. He got up early on Wednesday to take the first bus to ride on the bridge, only to catch a glimpse of the grand project.The bridge will slash road travel time from Hong Kong to Macao and Zhuhai remarkably.A Hong Kong resident surnamed Wong works in Macao and has to commute between Hong Kong and Macao regularly. He usually takes ferries, as road travel would take about three hours.But the new bus service via the bridge will take less than an hour and the ticket is cheaper, and he plans to take it as a key commuting alternative in the future, Wong said. wristbands canadacustom silicone bracelets canadarubber bracelets canadasilicone bracelets canadasilicone wristbands canadacustom wristbands canadacanadian wristbandswristbands canada
Vehicles heading to Zhuhai and Macao stop at toll booths on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Justin Chin / Bloomberg MACAO - The cross-border vehicle traffic of Macao grew by 8.5 percent year-on-year to 457,090 trips in January, while commercial flights in airport rose by 14.2 percent to 5,750 trips, the special administrative region's statistic service said here on Monday. The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the number of vehicle trips passing through the border gate edged up by 0.3 percent to 298,639. Meanwhile, there were 139,366 trips going through the Checkpoint of Cotai, up by 16.3 percent and 15,769 trips crossing the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. The DSEC report added that the commercial flights at the Macao International Airport totaled 5,750 trips, among which the trips to and from the mainland increased by 25.0 percent to 2,297, whereas those to and from China's Taiwan region dropped by 3.8 percent to 1,089. Gross weight of containerized cargo by land soared by 86.1 percent year-on-year to 2,300 tonnes, and that of seaborne containerized cargo grew by 17.3 percent to 16,266 tonnes. Seaborne container throughput amounted to 12,869 Twenty-feet Equivalent Unit (TEU), equivalent to 8,713 containers handled, up by 5.6 percent and 4.4 percent respectively. The Macao International Airport handled 3,584 tonnes of air cargo, a growth of 3.7 percent year-on-year, of which gross weight of outward cargo rose by 16.3 percent to 2,592 tonnes, while that of transit cargo declined by 34.2 percent to 420 tonnes.
