Lunar New Year: Hong Kong rolls out big events, with border checkpoints staying open longer and more rail, bus services

Hong Kong is expecting more than a million mainland Chinese visitors over the Lunar New Year holiday along with the return of festive celebrations that were put on hold during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many Hongkongers are also expected to celebrate the festival across the border. The Post lists the holiday highlights in Hong Kong and arrangements in place for travellers. What are the top Lunar New Year events? The Lunar New Year parade returns after five years and will be held in Tsim Sha Tsui on Saturday evening, the first day of the Year of the Dragon. Nine floats and 29 performance groups will make their way through the bustling area’s main roads. The acts include Japanese female pop dance group Avantgardey, the Light Dancers from Spain and the Universe of Lights troupe from Germany. Then comes the Lunar New Year fireworks at Victoria Harbour at 8pm on Sunday, with 23,888 firework shells to treat spectators with a glittering shower of blessings. The 23-minute show will stretch 850 metres over the harbour with fireworks in the shape of gold ingots, dragon eggs and other festive designs showcasing Chinese culture. The Chinese New Year Cup will kick off at 5pm on Tuesday at the Hong Kong Stadium, promising a star-studded football friendly billed as the World Legends and Hong Kong Legends. The internationals include Brazil striker Rivaldo, Italians Francesco Totti and Marco Materazzi, Spain’s Carles Puyol and Argentina’s Juan Sebastian Veron, while local stars Fan Chun-yip, Yapp Hung-fai and Man Pei-tak will be part of the home team. What are the special arrangements at border crossings? Some border checkpoints will extend their operating hours to cope with the festive crush of cross-border travellers. The Immigration Department expects 7.5 million trips between Hong Kong and the mainland from February 9 to February 17. The Shenzhen Bay checkpoint, connecting western parts of Hong Kong and Shenzhen, will be open round-the-clock for five days from Lunar New Year’s Eve to February 13. The Lo Wu control point, which is connected to the East Rail line, will remain open until 2am on February 10 and 12. The last train to Lo Wu will depart from Admiralty at 12.56am on both days. These measures are among efforts to avoid a repeat of the transport chaos in the past when thousands of mainland visitors were stranded in Hong Kong after watching the harbourfront fireworks display. The Lok Ma Chau-Huanggang checkpoint is the only land crossing that stays open 24 hours a day all year round. Hong Kong’s largest Lunar New Year fair plagued by sluggish sales: vendors What are the traffic and transport arrangements? The MTR Corporation has increased train frequencies at various periods on weekends and public holidays until February 18, covering all heavy rail lines except the Airport Express. On Friday, Lunar New Year’s Eve, services on all local railway lines and seven light rail routes will run overnight. Three MTR bus routes will extend service hours too. There will be no change for the Airport Express and Disneyland Resort line. Cross-boundary train services on the East Rail line for Lo Wu Station will be extended to the early hours of Saturday and Monday. The last train to Lo Wu station will depart from Admiralty at 12:56am while the last train from Lo Wu to Admiralty will depart at 2:30am. Lunar New Year in Hong Kong: fireworks, parades return for Year of the Dragon Apart from increased services, New Lantao Bus and Citybus will operate special overnight routes NB2 (Yuen Long/Tin Shui Wai-Shenzhen Bay Port) and NB3 (Tuen Mun-Shenzhen Bay Port) respectively, with the latter also running a special route 976S between Causeway Bay, Central and Lok Ma Chau from Friday until midnight on Sunday. Franchised bus operator KMB will run an overnight route N276 serving Tin Shui Wai, Yuen Long and San Tin from Saturday to Monday to ease cross-border travel. Coach operators will also run additional overnight cross-boundary services between urban areas such as Prince Edward, Yau Ma Tei and Wan Chai and the Shenzhen Bay crossing from Saturday to Wednesday. What is the weather forecast? The Year of the Dragon will start with fine weather and a low probability of rain. The Hong Kong Observatory said there will be significant temperature differences between day and night. Over the four-day long weekend, temperatures are expected to drop to 12 degrees Celsius (53.6 Fahrenheit.) on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and climb as high as 20 degrees Celsius on the second day. Additional reporting by Ambrose Li

Lunar New Year: Hong Kong rolls out big events, with border checkpoints staying open longer and more rail, bus services

Major festive crowd-pullers are the Tsim Sha Tsui parade, harbourfront fireworks and all-star soccer To cope with expected crush of cross-border travellers, some checkpoints will stay open 24 hours a day

Major festive crowd-pullers are the Tsim Sha Tsui parade, harbourfront fireworks and all-star soccer

To cope with expected crush of cross-border travellers, some checkpoints will stay open 24 hours a day