Under tight security, China's President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan arrived in Hong Kong on a train on Thursday.
Xi plans to attend Friday's anniversary celebrations marking the return of the former British crown colony of Hong Kong to China 25 years ago.
With the trip to the Chinese special administrative region, he left mainland China for the first time since the outbreak of the corona pandemic more than two years ago.
Since its return to China on July 1, 1997, Hong Kong was supposed to be governed under the "one country, two systems" principle.
The seven million Hong Kongers were also promised at the time that they would be able to enjoy a “high degree of autonomy” and many political freedoms by 2047.
Two years ago, however, in response to ongoing protests against the government, Beijing introduced a strict security law in the financial metropolis and crushed the democracy movement.
For Xi Jinping, a reception with business representatives and local politicians was on Thursday's program, as reported by the Hong Kong newspaper "South China Morning Post".
The President also wanted to visit a science park.
A banquet was planned for the evening with outgoing Hong Kong Prime Minister Carrie Lam.
On Friday, Xi is scheduled to attend the anniversary celebrations of John Lee's inauguration as Hong Kong's new head of government.
As the "South China Morning Post" further reported, the president is not expected to spend the night in Hong Kong, but will return to neighboring Chinese city Shenzhen and then come back to Hong Kong on Friday.
In order to protect the President from a possible corona infection, around 3,000 guests had to go into quarantine in the run-up to the celebrations.