Chief Executive John Lee on Saturday welcomed the news that the central government is adding eight more mainland cities, all provincial capitals, to a solo traveller scheme that will allow more mainland residents from remote areas to visit Hong Kong.
This came as Beijing announced that eight more cities, including Taiyuan of Shanxi province, Hohhot of Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Harbin of Heilongjiang, Lhasa of Tibet, Lanzhou of Gansu, Xining of Qinghai, Yinchuan of Ningxia, and Urumqi of Xinjiang, will be covered under the “Individual Visit Scheme” – bringing the total number of cities under the scheme to 59.
The scheme allows travellers from the mainland to visit and stay in Hong Kong and Macau on an individual basis, instead of on tour groups, for no more than seven days at a time. Residents from the eight cities could apply to visit the SARs from May 27th.
“All these eight mainland provincial capitals have huge populations and strong economic growth, and are cities…
