cover of the passport, which was covered with a security laminate. Details included were: Travel document type: P Code of Issuing State: CHN (People's Republic of China) Passport number (A valid Hong Kong passport number consists of nine characters: one or two uppercase letters, followed by six digits, and ending with one or two letters or digits) Surname and Given Names: in traditional Chinese and English Nationality: "CHINESE" (The nationality code is CHN as shown in the machine readable zone) Sex: denoted as "M" (male) or "F" (female) Place of birth: if born in China, name of province/autonomous region/municipality; if born in Hong Kong or Macao, 'Hong Kong' or 'Macao'; if born in other countries, name of country Dates of birth, issue and expiry: displayed in the format DD-MMM-YY Authority (of issue): "IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT, HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION" (in Chinese and English) There was also a machine readable zone at the bottom of the identification page. Changes from the first version included optically variable ink used to print the letters "HKSAR" along the left hand side of the photo and the words "IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT, HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION" in the "Issuing authority" section of the personal data page. Third Version (2007–2018) Since the issuing of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passport commenced on 1 July 1997 following the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong, the passport has undergone three different changes, each with security enhancements. In February 2007, the first ePassport was introduced. The design conforms with the document design recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organization. The new ePassport featured in the 2008 Stockholm Challenge Event and was a finalist for the Stockholm Challenge Award in the Public Administration category. The Hong Kong SAR ePassport design was praised on account of the "multiple state-of-the-art technologies [which] are seamlessly integrated in the sophisticated Electronic Passport System (e-Passport System)".[20] The cover of the new biometric passport remains essentially the same as that of previous versions, with the addition of the biometric passport logo at the bottom.[21] Physical appearance In 2006, the Immigration Department announced that Unihub Limited (a PCCW subsidiary company heading a consortium of suppliers, including Keycorp) had won the tender to provide the technology to produce biometric passports.[22] In February 2007, the first ePassport was introduced. The cover of the new biometric passport remains essentially the same as that of previous versions. The biometric passport symbol