Last tourists in visa storm accept compensation and go home

The last of the mainland tourists who had refused to leave the Lok Ma Chau border crossing after a visa row with their tour company finally accepted compensation and went home last night.

They were part of a tour group of 480 from Jilin province on a two-week trip to Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Taiwan. After two days in Hong Kong, most left for Taiwan on Friday, but 170 were left in limbo because their Taiwanese visas had not been issued.

The tourists had refused to leave their bus until they were paid cash for what they claimed was a scam. Most had drifted away on Saturday but a hard core group of 20 remained defiant yesterday. They said they would only leave upon confirmation that others who had left had received compensation in Shenzhen.

One of the two buses left for the checkpoint at about 1pm with 12 tourists after they each received 5,000 yuan (HK$6,330) and an air ticket home.

But the final eight were still sitting tight in another bus. Then at about 7pm representatives from Infinitus, a direct sales health-food company which the tourists said organised the tour, and the Shenzhen travel agency responsible for handling their visa applications, entered the bus for another round of negotiations.

Infinitus' representative Chen Lixin had earlier insisted that all those returning were paid after crossing the border.

Finally, at about 9pm, the bus left for the border after the eight accepted the same amount of compensation.