The trips are part of the city’s education reform, as the Citizenship and Social Development subject replaced the Liberal Studies as one of the four core subjects of senior secondary education from the 2021/22 school year, and will be included in the Diploma of Secondary Education exams starting from 2024.

Speaking to reporters after seeing the students off at the West Kowloon station this morning, Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki said the government has set a target for 40,000 students to participate in the mainland field trips this academic year.

He said many of the students seemed happy and eager to get started on their two-day trip to Guangzhou and Shenzhen today - which holds great importance to them as it allows them to better understand the country’s development.

Chan hoped the secondary five students could make use of the trip to acquire a better understanding of their interests, thus, make correct choices for subjects they wanted to pursue in the future.

The top official also noted that students were not required to submit reports to the government after the trip, while it is up to schools whether they wish to write up a report for authorities.

The field trips are organized and fully funded by the Hong Kong Education Bureau and are compulsory for secondary four to six students in Hong Kong, according to the EDB's notice in July 2022.