Let's stop aiming at Leung and let him do his job

On Sunday around noon when I returned to Hong Kong from Shenzhen via the Huanggang-Lok Ma Chau checkpoint, I was stunned once I stepped out of the building. The compound outside was so full of Hong Kong-bound tourists. After a half-hour navigating over hundreds of suitcases in the direction as indicated by the signage, I came to a dead end. I had to double back with equal difficulty until finally I found the waiting bus. It took a full 90 minutes.

The tourist guide told me this has been the usual scene ever since the new building opened, and the same chaos also takes place daily at the Lowu and Western checkpoints.

Enough is enough, and it is about time we do something about it.

Tourism is one of the pillars of our economy, employing directly and indirectly almost a million workers. The contribution of mainland tourists to this pillar is also undeniable. But as always, too much of a good thing will deteriorate into a nuisance at some point.

The economic value of tourism is now on a relentless trend of diminishing returns, and the accompanying social costs are becoming more obvious by the day. Business appears to be flourishing, but with employment kept low and shop and office rental rising, there is no incentive - in fact, no room - to diversify into other trades. Like me at the checkpoint, Hong Kong is stuck in the swell of mainland tourists, and there seems to be no way out of it.

It will take political guts and acumen to navigate out of this predicament, but as things are going, this is not a job cut out for C.Y. Leung's administration, which has much more imminent problems fighting for individual as well as collective survival. In the short run, the plan seems to be to just keep the status quo and let the community and infrastructure gradually adjust to it. Leung can also please a lot of people here if he can, in a very high-profile way, put a stop to more mainland tourists flooding in.