Page 9 - 154 varsity ebook
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Carrie Ho, 22, shares the same fear with Wong. Ho
used to visit Shenzhen with her friends once every two
to three months. She has stopped travelling to Shenzhen
since June. “I am afraid of being arrested or stopped by
mainland officers,” Ho says. Although she did not experi-
ence any phone checking at the border, she did not want
to risk the chance of possible detention.
Privacy protection
Posing as a customer, Varsity calls several major travel
agencies in Hong Kong to see whether escorted tours en-
counter similar situations when crossing the mainland
border. A staff member from Wing On Travel replies that
their tours to China are not affected and there is no re-
ported case of phone check at the border. A China Travel Departure point at West Kowloon
Service Hong Kong staff member reminds travellers of High Speed Railway Station
the risk of phone checks at the border, especially young creasing trend of service tours to China.
travellers. She says travellers are advised to bring another Due to the recent border check issues, the
phone without sensitive content when visiting China. group says student bodies prefer organis-
An EGL Tours frontline staff member also suggests turn- ing service tours to other Asian coun-
ing off the phone and deleting all sensitive messages be- tries. Southeast Asia has become a popu-
fore entering the Mainland. lar alternative to China, given impact on
budget is minimal.
Service tours affected While some voluntary organisations
Leisure travellers are not the only ones who have fear may avoid opting the Mainland as their
of visiting the Mainland. Organisers of voluntary ser- service destination, some are still organ-
vices also become more vigilant when they plan service ising service tours to the Mainland. One
tours to China. of them is Wu Zhi Qiao Volunteer Team
Posing as interested participants, Varsity calls VolTra, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong
a local voluntary organisation offering service tours to (CUHKWZQ). Funded by Wu Zhi Qiao
the Mainland and overseas, to inquire about their service (Bridge to China) Charitable Founda-
tours in China. VolTra replies that they observe a de- tion, CUHKWZQ is a team of university
student volunteers who design and build
footbridges in remote areas in the Main-
land.
CUHKWZQ finds some students have
safety concerns even though they are in-
terested in this project. “We received an
email asking whether we would choose
Some travel agencies offering
escorted tours advise tourists
to take extra precaution to
protect their privacy.
