An official from the Guangzhou exit-and-entry police shows how to use a self-service machine for the new e-permit, created for people commuting between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macao.[Photo by Zou Zhongpin/China Daily]

The Ministry of Public Security is piloting a program to allow e-permits for mainland travelers to Hong Kong and Macao.

The program would first apply to travelers who are registered in Guangdong province, which borders the two special administrative regions. The province's exit-and-entry administration began accepting applications for e-permits on Tuesday.

The e-permits, which are smart cards with integrated chips containing a cardholder's personal information, fingerprints and entry endorsement, are expected to gradually replace the current use of paper permits.

E-permits for citizens 16 years or older will be extended from their existing paper permits by five to 10 years. For those under 16, the e-permit will be valid for five years.

It will take 10 working days to acquire an e-permit, and authorities will first issue e-permits to citizens whose paper permits will expire within a year.

"The new e-permits are easier to carry and will make it faster for commuters to get through checkpoints," said Xie Xiaodan, head of the Guangzhou public security bureau, who handed the country's first two e-permits to two residents of the provincial capital at a Tuesday news conference.

Deng Yuebing was one of the two given e-permits.

"I used to wait one and a half hours in line to pass the checkpoints because the police need to manually verify cardholders one by one by checking the information on paper permits, like photos and endorsements," Deng said.