Mainland Chinese pay tribute to Tung Chee-hwa for opening door to Hong Kong

Mainland Chinese have paid tribute to Hong Kong’s first chief executive, the late Tung Chee-hwa, for introducing a solo-travel scheme more than two decades ago that opened the city to millions of travellers and created indelible memories for middle-class families.

The Individual Visit Scheme has grown from a handful of cities in Guangdong province in 2003 to its current 59 spanning the country as far west as Urumqi in Xinjiang, contributing to a more than fivefold increase in the number of mainland arrivals to Hong Kong.

Henry Tang Ying-yen, who served as financial secretary in 2003, framed the scheme as part of a broader effort to align with the mainland’s reform and opening-up while fostering understanding between residents on both sides of the border.

“It was introduced in the post-Sars era when cross-boundary exchanges were seriously impeded,” he told the South China Morning Post on Thursday, referring to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

“Individual visitors from the mainland contributed to our economy.”

Tung, who died on Tuesday at the age of 89, played a key role in getting the central government to approve the scheme by incorporating it into the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (Cepa), the free-trade deal Hong Kong negotiated with the central government.