A growing number of foreign passengers are taking the Shanghai-Hong Kong direct express train since it was launched four years ago, railway immigration police revealed yesterday.

More than 10 percent of the service's 400,000 passengers in that time were overseas travelers, they said. They were mostly from Europe, the United States, Australia and Philippines.

Most travelers on the Express K99 train were residents of Hong Kong and other mainland regions, while only a small percentage were from Macau and Taiwan.

Running between Shanghai Railway Station and Kowloon in Hong Kong, the first K99 train ran on May 19, 1997, but passengers had to get off at Dongguan in Guangdong Province to complete customs and immigration procedures.

The non-stop service was launched in 2003, with travelers heading for Hong Kong completing their customs and immigration paperwork at Shanghai Railway Station.

The journey was reduced from nearly 30 hours to 20 hours in April. A single ticket costs about 500 yuan (US$66).

(Shanghai Daily October 16, 2007)