Slump in Shenzhen visitors to Hong Kong but parallel traders are still everywhere, locals complain
A visa crackdown a year ago has cut the number of arrivals from the mainland by 57 per cent, but Sheung Shui residents are far from happy and another protest is planned
One year after the central government limited Shenzhen residents to “one visit per week”, the number of mainland visitors coming to Hong Kong on multiple-entry visas has dropped by 57.3 per cent to 6.3 million.
But Sheung Shui residents said their lives had not been made easier as parallel traders – who buy goods in Hong Kong to sell at a profit on the mainland – were still all over the place, despite some traders saying Shenzhen customs had stepped up checks.
The issue has prompted a local concern group to plan another protest in early May.
Cheung Kin-ping, 61, grandmother of a three-year-old boy, said the problems caused by inflows of parallel traders “were not solved at all”.
She said she still had to be “extremely careful” when sending her grandson to kindergarten every morning. “I fear those large trolley suitcases will hit him. They [traders] walk so fast.”