Macao residents are showing greater interest in shopping in the neighboring Zhuhai city, favoring goodand low-price commodities in supermarkets.

Macao Daily News reported Friday that people from the special administrative region (SAR) spend more than 100 million yuan (US$12 million) in Zhuhai per month.

Just opposite to the Gongbei port, the only land port between Macao and China's mainland, are a number of supermarkets grappling for bigger slices of the market with cheap and good-quality products.

Xin Yi Jia department store, which opened last month, offers a discount on hundreds of varieties of goods ranging from daily necessities to high-end items every day.

And Macao customers can also take free buses to visit supermarkets a few miles away from the port.

On weekends and holidays, buying sprees are constantly seen in Zhuhai's supermarkets and the Gongbei port has to open a few special passages to handle the huge passenger flow, the paper said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2002)