CONFIDENTIAL
from Guangdong and Fujian provinces had been raised with me by Consular Department in Peking. The matter had been given urgent and favourable consideration in Hong Kong and I understood that Dr Wilson would be soon giving details to NCNA of how a system of obtaining visas for local officials in Hong Kong might operate: I could not provide the details of the scheme at this time. I asked whether, in conre ction with the opening of a consulate, the Guangzhou authorities would be able to offer suitable office and residential accommodation: the Japanese and Americans were living and working in the Dong Fang hotel. Mr Fu said that at the moment there was a shortage of accommodation, and it might take a year or two for this to be put right. Some buildings were to be erected with the help of foreign capital and technology, including a tower block on Shamian, near the Foreign Affairs Bureau which might be suitable for offices and flats. Meanwhile the Japanese and Americans had been offered the former Vietnamese consulate and had turned it down. Ferhaps we would be interested. I said the idea of a consulate in Guangzhou was an attractive one, but there were a number of prior steps to be taken. Firstly, we should need a Consular agreement: we would also need to find the resources. Mr Fu said the visa issuing office of the FAB would be opening shortly in Hong Kong, but could not give an exact date.
13. Two days earlier, in Shenzhen, I spoke with Mr Li Jie, Vice Chairman of the Shenzhen Foreign Affairs Bureau.
S
He gave
11 1
an account of Shenzhen past and present, with no new information. He was also unable to discuss questions involving movement across the border, on which he referred me to Guangzhou, with one exception. He said that the total number of people crossing th
border in both directions had reached proportions which were fast
There were be coming unmanageable for the railway station. 5,800,000 crossers in 1979 and already 1,750,000 in the first three months of 1980: these figures did not include passengers on the through trains. Shenzhen were hoping to attract more tourists from Hong Kong. So far there were no facilities for overnight
stay, and people were coming for day trips 14,749 since the trips started on 25 September 1979, of which more than 10,000 had been in January-March 1980. Chalets were being built as a joint venture
with a Philippines firm which would house more than a thousand tourists when opened in the autumn. Shenzhen hoped eventually to attract most of the two million tourists a year who visited Hong Kong to come to Shenzhen either for the day or to visit for a few days. But the railway station - and the railway on the Hong Kongside could not cope he hoped that it would be possible to improve road links for tourism as well as keeping pace with the growing development of trade across the border. I said that the Long Kong authorities were also keen to improve communications. Things had been moving very fast and this put pressure on the infrastructure. It was important that the improvements were carried out according to plans agreed between the two sides after careful consideration of
the problems and with future as well as current developments in mind. I hoped the Shenzhen authorities would take an early opportunity to discuss these questions in detail with liong Kong.
/Kr liu