Tourists hopeful they'll see Labour Day fireworks

Tourists in town for the Labour Day holiday have been anxiously checking the weather ahead of a planned pyrotechnic display over Victoria Harbour on Wednesday night. The show is the first in a series planned to mark holidays and festivals, but with rain and thunderstorms forecast, officials earlier said they may have to call it off. A tourist, who is making a three-day trip from Zhejiang province, said it is her first time in Hong Kong and she really wants to see the fireworks. "I really want to see it! It will be a pity if it's cancelled. I think the scene will be fascinating. I've watched similar shows on the mainland, but I think that may be different in Hong Kong," she told RTHK. But another tourist said the pyrotechnic display was not the main point of her visit to the SAR, as she could still go to other places for sightseeing. "I planned to go to Victoria Harbour at night, but if the show is cancelled, I may go to Central to try out the observation wheel," she said. And some mainland tourists said they would not be staying overnight because of the high prices for hotels during the holiday. "We will go back to Shenzhen at night, but we may come again on Friday. The price of a hotel room in Shenzhen is just a third of that in Hong Kong. That's a huge difference," a tourist said. The Director of Immigration, Benson Kwok, meanwhile said that as of 10am, some 43,000 visitors from the mainland had entered Hong Kong on the first day of the Golden Week holiday. Speaking at the Lo Wu control point, he said some tourists may have adjusted their plans because of the inclement weather, but he expects more people to arrive later on Wednesday afternoon.