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Does Hong Kong have separate customs (know they have a different govt. administration from China proper)? If travel is LAX--Hong Kong--Shanghai, what are the customs requirements? Hong Kong AND Shanghai?
Thanks
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Clearing customs required in Hong Kong AND Shanghai?
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You'll go through passport control at both Hong Kong and Shanghai. If you have a US passport, you do not need a visa to enter Hong Kong, but of course you need a visa in advance to enter at Shanghai.
Is "passport control" less onerous than customs, i.e., dragging luggage to re-check? Or, must one retrieve bags, and re-check them at both Hong Kong and PVG airports?
You will NOT go through HK immigration or customs if you're only transiting at HKG, and your bags should be forwarded directly. Only basic security check.
Thanks!
When we transfered through HKG, our bags where checked through, but we did have to visit the ticket counter to get boarding passes for our onward flight - the boarding passes we printed at home were not accepted. We didn't realize this, so we ended up having to wait in the security line twice.
If you are just changing planes in Hong Kong and continuing immediately on to Shanghai, then you won’t go through Immigration or Customs in Hong Kong. (As in all countires, Immigration and Customs are two separate events.) You will be in “transit” at Hong Kong airport. Your bags will automatically be transferred for you, and you will stay inside the secured departure area of the airport. You’ll just go from your arrival gate to your departure gate. Follow signs for “transfer/transit” rather than “arrival/baggage claim”.
You may have to get a boarding pass for the Hong Kong –Shanghai leg of the trip. That would depend on whether or not the carrier on the US-Hong Kong portion was able to issue you boarding passes for both portions, which is usually only the case if you are using the same carrier. But getting a boarding pass is very easy to do, just go to the correct “transit” counter in the secured departure area of the airport for your connecting airline. You then show your ticket and they will issue you a boarding pass. For information on the location of the transfer desks for various airlines at Hong Kong airport see http://www.hongkongairport.com/eng/passenger/transfer-transit/all/airline-information/transfer-areas.html, that page also has links on transfer/transit generally.
Your bags will be transferred, even if are on two different airlines for each portion. Just show the originating airline your ticket all the way through to Shanghai and they should tag the bags through to Shanghai. Don’t confuse code sharing, etc with baggage transfer agreements which are in place among like 99% of all airlines. If you are flying two different airlines and for some bizarre reason your carrier in the US won’t tag the bags all the way through to Shanghai, then when you land in Hong Kong you will have go through Immigration in Hong Kong, then collect the bags, then go through Customs (which involves nothing more than walking through the green “nothing to declare” channel after you pick up the bags) and then go out into the Arrivals hall, go upstairs to the Departure Hall, find the check-in counter for your airline to Shanghai, get the bags tagged and drop them off there. This will be a big pain in the butt (lines at Immigration can be long and so can the wait for the bags and the line to check-in again upstairs), so do all you can to convince your originating airline in the US to just check the bags all the way through to Shanghai.
If you are spending time in Hong Kong before going on to Shanghai, then you have to go through Immigration and Customs in Hong Kong when you arrive, then go through Immigration when you leave Hong Kong, and then go through Immigration and Customs in Shanghai when you arrive there.
Wow, that was a detailed answer, just perfect for what I (my daughter) needed. Thanks very much!