The Hong Kong government has unveiled plans to launch “Southbound Travel for Guangdong Vehicles” in November, allowing vehicles from Guangdong Province to enter Hong Kong. However, there are currently no definitive plans to implement a similar scheme allowing vehicles from Guangdong to enter Macau.

Hong Kong’s Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Mable Chan, stated at a press conference on Wednesday that the government will begin accepting applications in November, with approved vehicles permitted to enter Hong Kong’s urban areas. Initially, 100 vehicles from Guangdong Province will be allowed to enter Hong Kong daily, with entry designated at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge border crossing.

How long they will be allowed to stay is yet to be confirmed.

“Southbound Travel for Guangdong Vehicles” is a reciprocal arrangement in the opposite direction to “Macau/Hong Kong Vehicles Crossing the Mainland Border”, which was launched in 2023. As early as November last year, the Guangdong Provincial Government issued guidelines on “Southbound Travel for Guangdong Vehicles”.

Regarding “Southbound Travel for Guangdong Vehicles” to Macau, at the beginning of the year a member of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Macau pointed out that “Southbound Travel for Guangdong Vehicles” to Macau will become a trend, and the government must make the necessary preparations. However, the Macau Transportation Bureau has indicated that there are no relevant arrangements at present.

Some believe that although the traffic situation in Macau is different from that in the mainland and Hong Kong, it is possible to slowly introduce such a scheme by first allowing mainland visitors to drive to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge parking lot before gradually opening up the scheme for full vehicle entry in future.