The State Council approved the addition of Xi'an City in Shaanxi Province and Qingdao City in Shandong Province as mainland cities for "individual travel" to Hong Kong and Macao. This is a "New Year gift package" distributed by the central government in response to the economic development situation of Hong Kong.
The "Individual Travel for Mainland Residents" was launched in July 2003, with four cities in Guangdong taking the lead in implementing it. It is the right time to increase the number of “individual tours” to cities in the Mainland.