Hong Kong West Kowloon Station Photo:CCTV

Ahead of the 27th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland on July 1, the city is set to open a crucial new tie with the Chinese mainland by launching high-speed rail services to Beijing and Shanghai.

Starting on Saturday, new overnight sleeper train services between Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai will be operated from Fridays to Mondays, facilitating business and tourism exchanges between the Chinese mainland cities and Hong Kong.

"We will take the overnight train departing around 6:30pm tonight from Hong Kong and arrive in Beijing at 7am tomorrow morning," Timothy Chui Ting-pong, director of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong, told the Global Times on Saturday. He is among the first group of Hong Kong travelers to experience the train.

Through the new service experience, Hong Kong residents and tourists will be able to fully appreciate the vast and superior high-speed rail network in the mainland, Chui said, adding that the city's tourism sector stands to benefit from the high-speed overnight services, as it is anticipated to see an increase in mainland visitors to Hong Kong, especially during the summer holidays.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong authorities have unveiled new policies to facilitate business and people-to-people exchanges among the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao.

The Hong Kong Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau announced on Friday the setting up of cross-boundary self-service kiosks at two locations in Shenzhen. The self-service kiosks will help residents and enterprises in mainland cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area access public services of Hong Kong without the need to travel to Hong Kong in person.

The self-service kiosks will provide over 60 public services including taxation, company registration, healthcare, immigration clearance, as well as culture and tourism-related services.

On June 4, China Railway announced that the direct train services to the two mainland cities will be upgraded to high-speed services. The announcement coincided with the launch of a new hospitality drive aimed at "jointly promoting hospitality and reinforcing Hong Kong's brand as the best tourism destination," according to a government statement.

The new sleeper train service will further meet the needs of leisure and business travelers for cross-border travel, facilitate two-way exchanges between people in both regions, and help the industry develop more related high-speed rail products, and develop tourism markets as sources of customers for each other, business insiders said.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu welcomed the new train services, describing them as "efficient, convenient and safe." He said in a statement released on June 4 that they would save travelers time as well as hotel costs.

The new services also have "significant meaning in fostering the people-to-people, business-to-business exchanges and the integration between Hong Kong and the mainland," Lee added.

The travel time between Beijing and Hong Kong will be shortened from 24 hours 31 minutes to just 12 hours 34 minutes, and it will only take 11 hours 14 minutes to travel from Shanghai to Hong Kong, from the previous 19 hours and 34 minutes.

Two sets of high-speed overnight trains with sleepers - D909/910 departing from Beijing West Railway Station to Hong Kong West Kowloon Station and D907/908 trains departing from Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station to West Kowloon Station will start operating, replacing the previous express trains, China Railway confirmed in a WeChat post on June 5. 

These trains offer more advanced facilities and increased capacity, with over 600 seats available on each train. Both trains depart at night and arrive in the morning, providing a convenient and comfortable travel option for passengers.

The D910 service to Beijing and its return D909 service made their debut on Saturday. Upper deck sleeper tickets were priced at HK$1,031 ($132), lower deck sleeper tickets at HK$1,163, and ordinary seat tickets at HK$937.

The upgraded train services is being widely welcomed by Hong Kong's tourism industry, which is making concrete preparations for more mainland visitors.

Hong Kong's tourism lawmaker Perry Yiu Pak-leung believes that the high-speed rail will be particularly attractive to families and elderly travelers, offering comfort and punctuality that may appeal to those who prefer train travel over flying, chinanews.com reported on Saturday.

"This new travel option is expected to draw more visitors to Hong Kong, with more positive results likely to show during the upcoming summer vacation," the Hong Kong lawmaker said.