Hong Kong residents will be able to use a single travel document — either their Mainland Travel Permit or Hong Kong identity card — to enter and leave the mainland through the new Huanggang Port when it opens.

The arrangement was announced by Chris Tang Ping-keung, secretary for security of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, on Saturday following the largest stress test to date at the revamped port.

The SAR government has coordinated closely with the central government and Guangdong provincial authorities to implement the arrangement, Tang said.

Under the existing immigration clearance system, Hong Kong residents making a two-way trip to the mainland are required to present two documents: their Mainland Travel Permit, also known as the Home Return Permit, to enter the mainland, and their Hong Kong identity card when returning to Hong Kong.

Once the new Huanggang Port begins operation, Hong Kong residents using e-channels will be able to use a single document for immigration clearance in both directions — either their Mainland Travel Permit, including permits issued to non-Chinese Hong Kong and Macao permanent residents, or their Hong Kong identity card.

A similar arrangement is already in place at three checkpoints connecting Zhuhai in Guangdong with the Macao Special Administrative Region — the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, Hengqin and Qingmao ports. The three crossings use a "collaborative inspection and joint clearance" model, which the new Huanggang Port will also adopt. Under the model, travelers need to wait in line only once for document inspection.

The new Huanggang Port, located in Shenzhen's Futian district, will replace the existing facility, which opened for passenger clearance in 1991 and is currently the only 24-hour checkpoint between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

Hong Kong and Shenzhen authorities on Saturday conducted the largest stress test to date at the new port, involving 20,000 personnel and over 1,000 vehicles, to comprehensively assess customs clearance and emergency response capabilities during peak hours.

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Tang said the exercise demonstrated the smooth operation and effective management of the facility by the Hong Kong and Shenzhen authorities. However, he noted that several areas still required improvement, including limited Wi-Fi capacity.

The exercise included drills covering key aspects of cross-boundary passenger and vehicle clearance, including pick-up and drop-off operations at public transportation hubs, inspection procedures for cross-boundary vehicles, the operation of joint inspection channels, passenger clearance procedures and a fire emergency response drill.

One drill simulated the arrival of 15,000 passengers from Shenzhen, divided into five batches of 3,000 people each. The batches arrived at five-minute intervals, corresponding to the train arrival schedules at Huanggang Port station on Shenzhen metro's Line 7.

Tang said the full-process pressure test, involving twice as many participants as a similar drill conducted a week earlier, proceeded smoothly. The maximum waiting time for immigration clearance was no more than 15 minutes.

The drill also marked the first test of the joint one-stop vehicle lanes for cross-boundary vehicle clearance.

The lanes integrate inspection functions across five departments in Shenzhen and the HKSAR, covering customs, immigration, border control and health and quarantine. The arrangement reduced vehicle clearance time to slightly more than one minute per vehicle, according to an on-site port employee responsible for the operation.

About 300 cross-boundary private cars were deployed to test the joint one-stop vehicle clearance lanes.

"The drill has achieved the expected results," Tang said.

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On the Shenzhen side, the tests focused primarily on tiered and segmented crowd-control mechanisms, the capacity of security scanners and vehicle inspection procedures.

Liu Weixiang, director of the Office of Port of Entry and Exit of Shenzhen Municipal People's Government, said the exercise achieved its desired results.

The Shenzhen and Hong Kong authorities will carefully review and refine their plans to ensure that final preparations for the opening of Huanggang Port proceed smoothly and meet the highest standards, he said.

Kevin Lam, a Hong Kong resident who took part in the trial operations, said he was particularly impressed by the port's collaborative passenger inspection system, which reduced his clearance time from about 30 minutes to about five minutes.

Lam said he frequently visits Shenzhen for its food and that the new 24-hour facility would make it more convenient for him to return to Hong Kong in the evening.

However, given the hot weather and large crowds, he said he hoped the temperature inside the port could be lowered slightly to provide a more comfortable environment for travelers.

William Xu contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at atlasshao@chinadailyhk.com