I tagged this question onto another thread where someone mentioned taking the train from Hong Kong to Shenzen for a day's shopping, but it seems to have got buried without being answered.

Just wondered what the visa requirements are - ie the cost and whether you have to apply in advance. I'm a British citizen btw.

Thanks

On a recent HK visit the concierge was able to help with this. There are several agencies that will process the visa in a couple days. If you go with an organized tour group they usually include this in the package, can do it in a day or two.

We took a day trip last month from Hong Kong to Shenzen.
You do require a day visa. Our friends took a form supplied by the Chinese consulate, a photo and their passports to the Chinese consolate (we are in Toronto)for a day pass. It took around 5 working days. We opted to take passport style photos with us and the hotel that we stayed at provided visas the next day. It probably cost us $10.00 more. In fact my husband didn't take a photo and the concerierge at our hotel even took the photo for him.
It was well worth it as we had a great day shopping there. We had friends that are Hong Kong residents take us there and as they explained, not all knock offs are the same but you should assume that everything there is a knock off. I am only sorry that we did not purchase more and that we didn't take enough HK$s with us. As they explained you don't want to use a credit card but they do have debit machines to take out chinese currency.
We did purchase some items such as Tiffany jewelery, purses and even a golf club that had serial numbers on them, so you have to wonder about their
authenticity.
Our only concern was bring things back into Canada and being concerned about
trademark infringements.
As you can tell by my long commentary it was a great day there were 6 couples and we had a wonderful time.
The shopping mall is a 5 story building and is steps away from the train station.
Enjoy

Thanks for the replies. I've read on another forum that you can just get off the train in Shenzen and get a day visa on the spot. Has anybody done this?

Randig - did you find the shopping in Shenzen very much better than in Hong Kong?

Xenos, I replied but somehow the text is not showing up. Hit post a reply and you find my long winded commentary down the right hand column.

Randig - I see your reply to my first post, have you done another reply to my second one?

yes I have replied to your second question. But for some reason it does not appear on this page. But it does appear when you hit "post a reply". When I scoll down it appears on the left hand side of the page.
If it is not there when you try let me know and I I will send my reponse again. If you like you can email me at [email protected] for the more direct route.

As a Brit you will be hammered as you will need to pay for a visa and I paid around $130 US for one the other week to be in and out in less than 24 hours. Better you go to Macau, its much nicer and cleaner, Shenzhen is a real dump, packed with people, heavy poloution and very dirty.

Randig

It doesn't show up on my screen. Same thing just happened to me - I did a reply to another question and that only showed up on the left side when I hit post a reply again, so maybe only the op can see it for some reason.

Steve, what nationality are you? I'd heard that a day visa for a British citizen only costs abour 150HKD, whilst it's around 400HKD for a US citizen, neither of which are anywhere near the 130USD you quote.

I've been to Macau before btw, and wasn't that impressed.

Xenos, sorry for the glitch, I'll try again. We only shopped in the street markets in Hong Kong - near Monkok Station, Hollywood Road and Repulse Bay and along Nathan Street. I purchased costume jewelery and very cheap shoes and purses,gifts,etc, not knock offs but trendy things that I and my teenage daughter would wear.We never got into malls and larger stores. I am not in the market for YSL, Gucci, etc things as they are beyond my tax bracket, but I hear they are cheaper there as there are no taxes. However, I do wear a women's european clothing line and there was a store there that I went into and even without taxes the clothes were more expensive in Hong Kong than in Canada.
When we went to Shenzen and there were 8 which may have added to the shopping frenzie! The visa cost us $60.00 which is just under 40 euros.
We bought dvd's for $1.00cdn for movies that are still in the theatres.
We bought knock off watches, and tiffany jewellery. The jewelery was too big and required adjustments, and when I took it to my jeweler here, he advised me that it is silver - it looks identical. What I paid for it was under $20.00 cdn! This particular bracelet sells in Canada for over $300.00
We bought beautiful purses that were knock offs for well under $50.00 Cdn
My husband even bought a knock off golf club - a friend of his has the identical club and they compared them- they look the same right down to the serial number. We bought beautiful pasmina shawls for a fraction of the cost we would pay here. Some of them had fur trim. For me to purchase that stuff here would be hundreds of dollars. I don't think I paid over $20.00 for any individual item other than the purses.
If you want the knock offs this is the place to to. But keep in mind that all pieces are not created equal and you should check very carefully that you are happy with the quality before purchasing.
Even there it is illegal to sell knock offs, so everything is hidden in back rooms, locked rooms, etc.
There are runners who greet you as you get off the train, if you are looking for something special ask them and then follow them, but if you don't like what you see move on.
I would rather purchase there than from the streets of hong kong in this manner.
Also, if you are interested, our freinds also took us to their tailor who made some beautiful shirts for both my husband and me. His company is Winston Co. 106 far east mansion arcade
2nd floor # 5-6 Middle Road. This is at the corner of Nathan just behind the Penninsula. I took a blouse with me as I wanted him to copy it rather than make me man's shirt. They were $32.00 Cdn. He also made a suit for our friend and he was very happy with it.
Hope some of this is worthwhile to you.

Randig

Wow - sounds like you bought all of Shenzen! I just love shopping for good knock-off stuff.

Problem now is how to persuade my husband to spend a whole day being dragged around back rooms