GUANGZHOU, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- For Chien Mou Lin's family, a gathering during the Lunar New Year holiday usually involves a choice between a three-hour ferry trip or a bus ride that could take up to four hours.

But this year, the 83-year-old retired physician living in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou with his wife, has a new and much easier means to travel to Hong Kong to visit their son and daughter-in-law -- a 50-minute high-speed railway ride.

"The train station is close to my home," said Chien. "The arrival station in Hong Kong's West Kowloon is also well-designed, saving us elderly much walking."

In September last year, the entire line of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link was put into official operation, as the Hong Kong section of the high-speed railway entered into service.

The 141-km Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link includes 115 km on the Chinese mainland and 26 km in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR).

Linked into China's expanding high-speed rail network, it will offer direct rail services between Hong Kong and 44 destinations on the mainland, including Beijing and Shanghai.

"Hong Kong is a fast-paced society. The high-speed railway is easily the best choice of transportation for people visiting their families during the holiday," said Shao Jianbo, a social worker in Guangzhou.

In October last year, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge, the world's longest cross-sea bridge, opened to public traffic, connecting Guangdong Province with the two SARs, Hong Kong and Macao.

Due to the rapid development of cross-border infrastructure, nearly 6 million tourists visited Hong Kong in November 2018, up around 20 percent year-on-year, said the Hong Kong Tourism Board.