About 287,000 Mainland visitors entered Hong Kong during the recent National Day Golden Week holiday, 21% more than last year.

Total passenger throughput at land-boundary checkpoints was 2.77 million, up 9.3% over the 2.53 million passengers last year.

Of these, about 1.98 million, a daily average of almost 250,000, passed through Lo Wu control point.

Passenger traffic at other checkpoints from September 30 to October 7 was smooth and orderly despite a substantial increase in the number of Mainland visitors.

The Individual Visit Scheme launched last July has allowed residents from various Mainland cities to visit Hong Kong.

During this period, 76,152 individual visitors came to Hong Kong, representing a daily average of over 9,500.

On October 1, the number of individual visitors reached a record high of 21,677, with the majority of them travelled through Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau.

To cope with the increases, the Immigration Department redeployed 335 officers from other divisions to reinforce its control points. Also the 50-member Emergency Response Team was mobilised on October 1.

On October 3, the Contra-Flow Scheme was implemented at Lo Wu to handle a drastic increase in departing passengers.

During the busiest hours, the number of departure counters increased from 76 to 109, enabling the processing of 23,826 passengers per hour.

The department was in close liaison with the Shenzhen authorities the entire time, to ensure smooth flow of passengers.