Call for Hong Kong to fix border internet issues, protect rural areas

Boosting internet connectivity at border checkpoints and raising environmental awareness in rural areas are among the improvement measures suggested by observers based on lessons learned from this year’s “Labour Day” golden week holiday for Hong Kong authorities.

The recommendation comes after tourists struggled to generate QR code tickets for their trains due to an overloaded network, while littering issues were spotted in country parks packed with visitors during the five-day holiday.

The MTR Corporation earlier stated that the mobile data and free Wi-fi at Lok Ma Chau station could not handle the high traffic on Friday, after social media posts showed tourists crowded in the station.

Consequently, passengers faced significant delays in using their smartphones to generate QR codes from the various payment platforms.

It said it had contacted its network provider to increase mobile data capacity and it had doubled its Wi-fi capacity.

Lawmaker Gary Zhang Xinyu, an engineer who previously served as a station services manager at the MTR Corp, said he was “shocked” and “embarrassed” by the situation, especially given the widespread use of digital payments.