Direct trains to Guangzhou put cross-border links back on track

Choi Wai-hang was one of the frequent travellers on the Guangzhou-Kowloon through trains in the early days of its resumption of service in 1979.

He knows well how the service made the cross-border journey less tiresome. After the through service between Guangzhou and Kowloon was suspended in 1949, travellers from Hong Kong had to cross the border on foot to Shenzhen to catch another train to Guangzhou after the Kowloon-Canton train from Hung Hom reached Lo Wu.

'We used to catch a train from Hung Hom at 7am and would not arrive in Guangzhou until 3pm or 4pm that day.

'It's hard for the younger generation to imagine that a trip between Hong Kong and Guangzhou would take up to nine hours,' said Mr Choi, director of Reiss, Bradley and Company, a British trading firm in Hong Kong in the late 1970s.

The direct service between the two cities opened in 1911 but was suspended in 1949 after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Starting from the late 1950s, Mr Choi used to travel to Guangzhou to attend the China Import and Export Fair, popularly known as the Canton Fair, held twice a year in the spring and autumn. The Canton Fair, which was inaugurated in 1957, is the mainland's largest trade fair.

'Until the late 1970s, you could not return to the mainland unless you held a permit applied for by your relatives on the mainland or an invitation issued by Canton Fair organisers,' Mr Choi explains.