Thousands of people went to Lao Cai border gate to travel to China. They had to line up from dawn but still had to wait about 4 hours, twice as long as usual.
Hoai Thanh, a Hanoi tourist, went on a holiday road tour to China for the first time, and was “shocked” to see thousands of people lining up at Lao Cai international border gate on the morning of April 27. She bought a 4-day Chau Hong Ha tour and was informed by the tour seller that she needed to be there early at 5:30 am at Lao Cai border gate to wait for procedures – nearly 2 hours before the border gate opened. Even though she arrived early, she still had to wait up to 4 hours to clear customs.
The hot weather makes Thanh feel more “sick”. The elderly and children around looked “very tired”.
As noted by VnExpressmost groups departing for a China road tour on April 27 must gather at the border gate from 5:00 a.m., 1-2 hours earlier like Thanh.
Ms. Hoang Tuyet, representative of Yunnan Group Tours, estimated that more than 4,000 tourists traveling to China by land passed through the border gate on April 27, 1.5 times higher than during the Lunar New Year. On the “launching” day of the April 30 holiday, the unit had about 500 guests, with 4 cars going to Lijiang, 7 cars going to Chau Hong Ha route.
“The tour guides stayed up almost all night to reserve seats. The groups had to divide into many areas to gather and line up to wait for their turn to move into the border gate,” Ms. Tuyet said.
Ms. Tuyet said that traveling to China by road is a trend during this year’s holidays and will continue in the next few years when new routes are continuously exploited, prices are more reasonable than domestic flights, and people can experience culture. foreign.
Groups using visas and traveling by high-speed train have priority for customs clearance before groups traveling with passports to ensure train running times. The unit’s earliest customs clearance group was at about 8:45 a.m., while the remaining groups were all on time for the train. Some groups traveling with passports are expected to have to clear customs at 1pm.
Ms. Luu Thi Thu – Deputy Director of Hoang Viet Travel – said there are 5 road tour groups going to Chau Hong Ha and Kunming, Lijiang. The groups proactively departed from 0:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. from Hanoi, arrived at the border gate early and the first group completed customs clearance at 9:30 a.m. The number of groups still stuck at the border gate is very large, it is likely that it will take 4:00 p.m. to finish them all.
According to Ms. Thu, on weekdays, if it’s crowded, customers usually have to wait about 1-2 hours. On holidays, the number of customers increases many times but the procedures are still the same so the waiting time is longer. Travel companies only have the solution to depart early to clear customs faster.
Mr. Minh Tung, a tour guide leading a group of tourists from Hanoi, said the company booked train tickets to Dali at 13:30 China time (12:30 Vietnam time). In case they do not enter the country in time or are late for the train, they will have to make up money to rent a car to take passengers to Dali. On a previous holiday, the unit had a group that missed the train, had to rent a car and arrive at Dali near midnight.
“Tourists who have gone on holidays can sympathize, but first-time visitors will probably be frustrated by this scene of crowding and immigration delays,” he said.
According to Chinese road tour operators, the number of tourists on April 27 is the largest, April 28-29 is still crowded but less, from April 30 it will return as usual. April 27 is the busiest day because there are many tourist groups going to Lijiang (5 days 4 nights). If you take this route on April 28 or 29, the group will coincide with the Golden Week period – the peak of Chinese tourism. Therefore, on April 28 and 29, tourists mainly go to Chau Hong Ha, lasting 3-4 days.