University of Hong Kong further tightens booking rules for tourists to cover every day of week
- Expanded requirement will take effect next month at campus popular with mainland Chinese visitors, with university also offering guided tours
The University of Hong Kong (HKU) said on Friday it would also operate six guided tours from the end of July, offering an opportunity for curious visitors to take a closer look at the century-old institution.
“The initiative is part of the tourist flow management scheme that aims to preserve the HKU campus as an environment conducive to teaching and learning … while allowing visiting tourists to explore the campus and history of the university at the same time,” HKU said.
Currently, tourists must book visits between Monday and Saturday. The latest move added Sunday to the requirements.
The initiatives were in response to an increasing number of tourists descending on the university in recent years to take pictures or explore its grounds.
The university’s Pok Fu Lam campus has been especially popular with mainland Chinese tourists in recent months after being featured heavily as a trendy sightseeing spot on the Chinese Instagram-like Xiaohongshu platform.
The university said its guided tours, lasting about an hour per session, would cover various declared monuments on the main campus, as well as access to places that are not regularly open to the public, such as Loke Yew Hall.
Student guides will accompany the participants to explain the background of each of the sites and the university’s wider history.
Guests on the guided tours, which cost HK$100 (US$13) per person, must book through the university’s website. Six tours – two each in Mandarin, English and Cantonese – will run on designated days from July 25 to August 6.
The tightened rules for regular tourist visits, set to be implemented for August and September, followed the initial introduction of a pre-booking requirement in May.
“Special arrangements of tourist flow management will be implemented during August and September to accommodate the increasing number of activities in the campus,” the university said.
Public holidays will be covered in the seven-day reservation requirements, which also include a visitor quota.
“Tourists visiting the campus between 8am and 6.30pm, Monday to Sunday and public holidays, will be required to make reservations through HKU’s online registration platform prior to their visit, subject to availability for each session,” HKU added.
The university also said it would monitor the effectiveness of the measures and make necessary adjustments, taking into account feedback from its members and the public.
A red brick wall emblazoned with the university’s name and crest near an MTR station is one of the most frequented spots on campus, with tourists often seen gathering for pictures and talking loudly among themselves.
Some mainland visitors felt the new requirements were a hassle.
Data analyst Sun Yining, who visited the university in May, said she came across similar restrictions on the mainland, but she still felt they were an inconvenience.
“Top universities like Tsinghua and Peking University all require reservations in advance,” Sun, 24, said. “However, it will make it inconvenient for me if I want to meet my friends in Hong Kong University, because I only have time at weekends.”
Chen Siyu, a 26-year-old PhD student at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology who plans to visit HKU with her sister next week, described the new requirements as strict.
“I heard there used to be many tourists going into classrooms and disturbing ongoing classes, but the restriction should not be so strict,” Chen said.
“Some students who wish to study in HKU look forward to taking a tour inside the university.”
