A record-breaking 203 million inbound and outbound passenger trips were made in 2024 via checkpoints in the Chinese mainland city of Zhuhai leading to Macao and Hong Kong, an increase of 22 percent year on year, official data showed.

These checkpoints include the ports of Gongbei, Hengqin, Qingmao and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Gongbei, an over-land border crossing between Zhuhai in Guangdong Province and the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), was the busiest port, recording approximately 110 million inbound and outbound trips last year.

Macao last month celebrated the 25th anniversary of its return to the motherland. Macao and its neighbor Hong Kong are China's two SARs governed under the "one country, two systems" policy since China resumed the exercise of sovereignty over them following long periods of Portuguese and British colonial rule, respectively. The policy allows them to maintain their capitalist systems and ways of life within socialist China.

China aims to develop the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), an area encompassing Hong Kong and Macao along with nine cities in Guangdong, into a world-class city cluster, a global technology and innovation center, a livable, business-friendly location, an exchange hub for the cultures of the East and the West, and a world-class tourism destination.

Interconnectivity has improved within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao GBA, with customs clearance procedures simplified. As a result, the flow of both passengers and vehicles at ports adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao is experiencing a rapid uptick, according to Zhuhai border inspection authorities.

In 2024, Zhuhai border inspection authorities recorded a record high number of 11 million entries and exits involving vehicles. Among them, approximately 3.1 million entries and exits were made by vehicles traveling from Hong Kong and Macao to the mainland -- accounting for about 28 percent of the total.