Tourist arrivals in Hong Kong and Macao from the Chinese mainland in the first quarter reached 827,000, up 47.1 percent year-on-year, statistics released by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) Wednesday show.

China initiated a facilitated individual travel (FIT) policy on Hong Kong- and Macao-bound tours last year, which has helped the growth of tourist arrivals in these regions.

To further facilitate the personnel exchanges between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macao and to promote their economic development, China has, since the beginning of this year, applied the FIT policy to more mainland cities to enable more mainlanders to visit Hong Kong and Macao, the MPS said.

(China Daily April 29, 2004)