Hundreds of thousands of spectators packed Hong Kong’s harbourfront for a fireworks display on National Day, capping off celebrations that included an open day at PLA naval ships and visitors descending upon the city for shopping, sightseeing and hiking.

Police said 344,000 people packed both sides of Victoria Harbour to watch the 23-minute display on Wednesday, the local highlight of the first day of mainland China’s “golden week” holiday.

The Immigration Department recorded a net inflow of about 128,000 trips, as of 9pm. About 484,000 inbound trips were made and around 356,000 outbound ones. Of the inbound trips, 46 per cent were made by mainlanders while residents accounted for 63 per cent of the outbound trips.

After attending a flag-raising ceremony in the morning, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu pledged to “eliminate bottlenecks” and shorten the time needed to realise economic gains to ensure that residents from all walks of life could benefit from the city’s development.

He told Beijing and local officials, lawmakers and guests that his government would “spare no effort” in three areas of work, namely safeguarding national security, pushing economic growth and deepening reforms.

“The government strives to adopt effective measures to eliminate bottlenecks in the generation of dividends and shorten the time needed to realise efficiency gains, in order that citizens can benefit from the fruits of economic development more quickly and extensively,” he said.