HK border cross eased for pupils in Shenzhen

A new system to improve the movement at checkpoints of Shenzhen children traveling to Hong Kong for school had a rocky start on Monday, as thousand of students had failed to register for the new system ahead of the first day of school.

Up to 17,000 Shenzhen students are expected to travel to Hong Kong for school this semester. To ease the pressure on checkpoints processing the students, a digital bar code system has been introduced. The bar code is put onto the students' personal documents, allowing them to pass the checkpoint in a few seconds instead of waiting for customs staff members to stamp their documents.

The majority of cross-boundary students are kindergarten age, with the youngest only two years old, according to official statistics.