The number of Chinese mainland individual visitors visiting Hong Kong rose 35.8 percent during the Labor Day Golden Week over the same period last year, Hong Kong Immigration Department said Tuesday.

The department added that passenger traffic during the week (May 1-7) remained smooth despite a substantial rise. Passengers were able to clear immigration within 30 minutes.

A total of 203,506 individual visitors entered Hong Kong, representing a daily average of more than 20,000. On May 1, individual visitors peaked at 43,587. Most traveled through land-boundary checkpoints at Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau.

From April 30 to May 9, more than 5.2 million people traveled in and out of Hong Kong through land, sea and air checkpoints, up 9 percent on last year. Among them, 1.4 million were visitors, up 8.7 percent on last year.

(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2005)