She said she was not aware of either M+ museum or Hong Kong Palace Museum, two new landmarks in the West Kowloon Cultural District.

Tien and her family are among the many mainland patrons returning to the city on budget tours for the first time in three years after the border fully reopened in early February.

Images showing hundreds of these visitors eating takeaway food on the streets of To Kwa Wan in Kowloon went viral earlier in the week.

Hong Kong leader demands better crowd control for mainland Chinese tour groups

Returning to the area on Wednesday, a Post reporter found tour groups forming a lengthy queue outside one of two Chinese restaurants in the neighbourhood for an early lunch. The restaurant can seat at least 600 diners at a time.

“It is a decent meal which has chicken, fish and stir-fried vegetables. You can refill your soup and rice. I don’t mind the short lunch break because I want to leave and see other places soon,” Tien said.

She spent HK$3,288 (US$418) per person for the tour including accommodation, which covered two days in Hong Kong, a day trip to Macau and two days each in Shenzhen and Guangzhou. The 60-year-old and her family stayed at the budget Bridal Tea House Hotel in Yau Ma Tei.

The Post observed coaches of tourists arriving at Sung On Street in To Kwa Wan from 9am to 10.45am for breakfast and between 11am and 2pm for lunch.

At one point, 150 people were queuing outside the restaurant. Staff set up barricades outside to manage crowds, while another large group waited for tour buses.

Following complaints from residents, the Travel Industry Authority asked the two restaurants to implement measures to minimise public disturbance by Thursday at the latest. The tourism regulator told them to put in place a reservation system for tour groups, ensure a 30-minute dining time and designate staff to divert crowds and coordinate coaches.

The authority on Wednesday said the restaurant on Sung On Street had stepped up arrangements to ensure visitors were seated in an orderly manner and the congested streets had greatly improved. But it urged the operator to strengthen its crowd management measures.

2 Hong Kong restaurants to hire staff to reduce crowds of mainland Chinese tourists

However, residents in the neighbourhood expressed mixed feelings about the resurgence of mainland tour groups.

Peter Yeung Hok-kan, 35, said he was not used to having so many people in front of his building.

“It has been a very quiet neighbourhood for the past three years. Sometimes when I go out, tourists are just everywhere, making noise, smoking and throwing cigarette butts. The hygiene issue concerns me more,” the civil engineer said.

Stay-at-home mother Cheung Suk-ming, 56, who lives nearby, said it was a good sign to see tourists back in the city as they were good for the economy.

“The situation is expected now that quarantine-free travel has resumed. Tourism is still very important to the local economy and this is a sign of Hong Kong returning to normality,” Cheung said.

A tour guide, who only gave her surname as Wong, said the crowds at To Kwa Wan were reminiscent of the time before the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Their shopping locations are nearby and there are only two restaurants big enough to accommodate them. Of course, they need to queue up to dine because of the large number of tourists,” she added.

Before the pandemic, mainland tourists in tour groups were primarily day trippers seeking bargains, largely for daily necessities. Now, budget tours involve staying overnight in the city, combined with other destinations in the Greater Bay Area, an emerging economic zone comprising Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong.

Visiting Hong Kong for the first time, electrician Jiang Xingwei, 55, and his wife from Anhui province in eastern China paid HK$1,888 each for a five-day trip, including accommodation. As part of the package, the couple will spend two days in both the city and Macau.

While the tour included tickets to Ocean Park, Jiang said he was disappointed tickets to the Palace Museum were not part of the deal.

“We visited the West Kowloon Cultural District the day before but we only took pictures outside M+ and the Palace Museum, and wandered through the Art Park. The package does not include tickets to go inside,” Jiang said.

Hong Kong tourism chief vows tougher curbs amid complaints against tour groups

Cheng Keyi, 64, from the central Chinese province of Hubei, also joined a week-long multi-destination tour, with two days each in Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai. Cheng and her husband paid HK$2,588 per person.

“I haven’t been to all three places. I just want to go to as many destinations as I can in the shortest period of time. Taking pictures is the main thing for me on this trip. But my husband loves to stay long in Hong Kong to shop for watches. He planned to spend HK$5,000,” the grandmother of two said.

She added that visiting Wong Tai Sin Temple and taking the Star Ferry were both on her itinerary.