CHECKPOINTS in Shenzhen and Hong Kong will work in coordination to handle the expected surge of travelers during the Spring Festival period.

About 8.36 million overland cross-border trips are expected from Jan. 20 to Feb. 7, an 11.4-percent increase over the same period of last year, a joint Shenzhen-Hong Kong task force assigned to handle cross-border affairs during the holiday said yesterday.

The travel peak will occur Jan. 31, the third day of the lunar new year, with 540,000 people expected to pass the overland checkpoints.

Immigration officials of the two cities have agreed to notify the other party 30 minutes in advance if large crowds are expected to appear at either city's checkpoints, so that measures can be taken to smooth passenger flows on the other side.

More shuttle buses and immigration counters will be added to deal with a surge in cross-border passengers.

Huanggang Checkpoint will see the biggest increase of travelers from last year. A total of 2.65 million passengers are expected to cross the border through the checkpoint during the 19-day period, a rise of 19.3 percent over the same period of last year. The number of travelers using Luohu Checkpoint will increase 5.1 percent, with 5.17 million trips expected.

Editor: Yan