"Hong Kong is a city where I can buy good quality stuff at good prices, especially during Christmas and New Year holidays," says Zhang. "This is the time when all stores offer hefty discounts. The entire trip cost me not less than 20,000 yuan, but to buy the same clothes, jewellery and electronic products, I think I would have to spend much more if I were to shop on the mainland."

"The retail service is also pretty good; and I really appreciate that all sales assistants could manage to speak Putonghua even though, I understand, they were having difficulties. Besides, they don't grumble about taking renminbi notes," she says.

Come Christmas and New Year, and the Spring Festival, mainlanders get smitten by the travel bug and like Zhang, many mainlanders are lured by the myriad attractions of Hong Kong.

The increasing number of mainland tourists has also boosted Hong Kong's retail sales and hotel business.

A huge number of mainland holidaymakers poured into the special administrative region (SAR) to spend the first three days of the New Year.

"We recorded more arrivals from the mainland during the Christmas and New Year holiday period this year. The total arrivals are 7 percent higher than the same period last year," says Theresa Wong, spokeswoman for the Hong Kong SAR government's Immigration Department.

Wong says Hong Kong received 3,631,295 visitors from the mainland during the Christmas and New Year holiday period.

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