More than 4,000 tourists from the Chinese mainland visited Hong Kong on New Year's Day 2002, the first day of the lifting of the daily ceiling of 1,500 visitors from the mainland.

The tourists arrived in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region after check-in procedures at the Shenzhen Luohu Checkpoint in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province.

Facing Hong Kong across a local river, Shenzhen is a major gateway to Hong Kong.

Officials at the checkpoint attributed the increased number to the lifting of the daily limit and the decline in Hong Kong hotel prices.

According to figures from Hong Kong's Immigration Department, 110 tour groups traveled around Hong Kong on January 1.

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2002)