In the Hong Kong SAR, official figures show a big rise in tourists numbers from the mainland for the first 4 days of the week-long National Day Holiday. They are up almost 30 percent from the same period last year.

In other words, more than 337-thousand people visited Hong Kong from the mainland between September the 29th and October the 2nd. But the number of visitors who chose to travel in tour groups actually fell by as much as 20 percent, suggesting that there's a new preference for independent travel.