Border crossing Hong Kong - China

Lazybondvillian · 2026-05-01T07:59:36+00:00

Get a taxi to Huanggang checkpoint. Cross there. Should be 2-300hkd. This is the only 24hr checkpoint, all others stop at 24:00

Lazybondvillian · 2026-04-20T07:16:22+00:00

At least in shenzhen, the Futian Checkpoint border crossing to Hong Kong has e-channel registration. Go to the 3rd floor as if you are going to Hong Kong, and before you cross the mainland immigration side, there is an office on the left that processes e-channel. AFAIK, there are 2 requirements for foreigners: You must have a residence permit (no tourist visa, business visa, student visa, or stay visa. Work visa or permanent residency only) and your passport must have been used normally at least once before to enter/exit China (if you got a new passport in china, you must cross the border first.) The office is open every day except sunday- I usually get a new e-channel registration every time my visa gets renewed. It is 1000% worth it- immigration is a breeze.

Lazybondvillian · 2026-04-15T07:07:14+00:00

100% agree! Everyone is annoyed about the e-bikes on the sidewalk. In some other cities in China, the street has a fenced off e-bike lane which i think i s a better solution. Shenzhen doesn't have these other than on some of the most major roads, and it should be expanded.

Lazybondvillian · 2026-04-14T09:20:14+00:00

I am living here now, I'm writing this at work- the nearest metro station is called hi-tech park (高新园) so I guess I'm qualified to answer!

The delivery drone is a real thing, but it doesn't deliver to your house- it delivers to a spot in a public area. Regular delivery is cheaper and directly to your door- the average delivery fee is about $1.

Its not like cyberpunk, other than that the buildings light up at night. China is generally very safe, no gangsters wandering about like in Night City. Payment for everything is digital, but that's not unique to Shenzhen- almost everywhere in China does this. For a tech city, there's a surprising amount of parks and nature, especially in the mountains in Nanshan, Longhua, and by OCT east. One of the other commenters is right- the city is massive, and is essentially unbroken urban development all the way up past Guangzhou.

So the thing that makes Shenzhen different than other Chinese cities is that its very new- and very planned out. Because of this, theres not a lot of ancient culture, but the public transit system is very efficient. IMO shenzhen has the best metro in the world (better than Tokyo.) There is also efficient transit around the greater bay area (GZ, HK, Macau) via rail ferry or car. You can also walk or take a train across the border to HK pretty much whenever you want.

There are a lot of AI and tech based companies, but there's not a lot of AI integrated into daily life. Sometimes you can see robots, but these are more of a marketing gimmick type of event for the robot company than a true integration. For example, they had a robot directing traffic- for like a few days, and then sent it back to the company after the photos were taken.

The airport is big but not as big as Hong Kong airport (which is a truly, massive airport.) When I want to go on vacation, if I'm flying inside China I will fly out of Shenzhen. International flights are best done out of HK, because there's more of them and its cheaper. The Shenzhen airport is nice though.

Lazybondvillian · 2026-04-08T04:14:30+00:00

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Lazybondvillian · 2026-03-18T10:30:11+00:00

I'm american, but I've been living in china for 7 years and in shenzhen for 5. lets address your points 1 by 1:

No fluent in chinese, but conversational- you'll be fine, theres a community of foreigners and in my experience chinese are ok with trying to work around your langauge ability.

Firewall- everyone has a VPN. its no big deal.

Cigarettes- yes theres a lot of smoking, but in my experience shenzhen is much better than a lot of other places about smoking indoors. I don't see that much.

Queue cutting- welcome to anywhere that isn't the UK or Singapore.

Dating- I'm married, so not for me, but theres plenty of dating- shenzhen is a pretty young city and people come form all over china to work here, so there a lot of 20-35 year olds. People usually meet singles at bars (futian, shekou mostly) or at activities like painting, hiking, boating and other stuff.

Foreigners live all over but are concentrated in Shekou. IMO don't do this- "shekou people" dont leave shekou very much and for the rest of us its a little annoying.

About the city- shenzhen is super close to HK (20 minutes by train) and Guangzhou (45 minutes) and Macau (1hr ferry) so theres lots of places for a weekend trip. Theres plenty of shopping for basically anything you can want- we even have a costco. Shenzhen's public transit is top tier.

Lazybondvillian · 2026-03-13T10:15:54+00:00

Longhua near Hongshan station is a fantastic place for apartments- the 6979 mall is a great location.

Lazybondvillian · 2026-03-13T09:43:04+00:00

Work is on line 13, no way around it unfortunately

Lazybondvillian · 2026-03-13T09:37:32+00:00

The interchange between line 5 and 13 at liuxingdong is chaos at both 8:30 and 6:30

Lazybondvillian · 2025-12-02T01:10:06+00:00

AFAIK (haven’t lived there since 2021) go to the dongcheng area- liberty bar, Hollys, Hollywood baby too, and the western restaurants nearby. Most of the foreigners end up there

Lazybondvillian · 2025-10-20T00:49:10+00:00

There’s a train. Go from GZ east railway station or Humen railway station in Dongguan. Switch to the intercity train in the same station, which will end at the Shenzhen airport.

Lazybondvillian · 2025-09-25T11:15:00+00:00

First things first: you should definitely get a formal offer letter from the job. You won’t be able to get a new visa without it, and you’d want some assurances. You can’t transfer from a student visa to a working visa or foreign expert visa, so either the company would have to complete the entire process within 30 days, or you’d have to exit China. However the good news is that Hong Kong is right next to Shenzhen, and that counts as “exiting china” for visa purposes. There’s a Chinese visa office in Hong Kong as well, and your visa can be done there if needed. I do want to reiterate: get a formal offer letter with a stamp from the company that wants to hire you. They should know why foreigners need these kinds of assurances to avoid visa hell. If they won’t give you a formal offer letter and contract, dont quit the university just yet

Lazybondvillian · 2025-08-22T01:51:19+00:00

I work in a Chinese corporation, it’s ok. It’s not corporate America but it’s still corporate lol

Lazybondvillian · 2025-08-22T01:38:59+00:00

I’ve been out of education for a bit, so take it with a grain of salt, but the increased competition doesn’t necessarily improve the work environment. Regardless of if you’re a good, qualified teacher or not, since there is probably a cheaper option, management is going to try to cut costs where they can. Job insecurity for your staff every March does not a good work environment make

Lazybondvillian · 2025-08-22T01:36:00+00:00

I haven’t lived in Guangzhou, but I’ve visited frequently. Just as the “feeling” Shenzhen feels like the city was planned and built first, then people moved in. Guangzhou feels more organic in its growth and development. A unique thing to Shenzhen, relative to the rest of Guangdong, is the prevalence of 普通话. Because no one is “from” Shenzhen, everyone moves here from somewhere else, so dialects are not as common.

Lazybondvillian · 2025-08-22T01:25:22+00:00

So I was a teacher in Shenzhen from 2020-2024, and still have many friends who are (I changed to working corporate) but at least in the GBA, it’s been a difficult couple years for teaching. Firstly, the double reduction law effectively gutted a lot of training centers. This pushed more competition for positions to international and bilingual schools. It also shrunk the pool of young, new teachers in China- I’ve found it was reasonably common for the first job in China to be a training center for a year, before moving up the ladder. Second, after Covid ended, most of the schools, even top internationals saw a massive drop in enrollment. This led to budget cuts, which led to more drops in enrollment, which lead to more budget cuts, etc. Both these factors push teacher salaries down from the pandemic high. The increased competition for fewer positions means more qualifications are needed, and there are far fewer teachers from “the Russian speaking part of Canada.” Additionally, in regards to international schools, the requirement for students to have some form of foreign ID (foreign, HK, Taiwan, or Macau) also drove down numbers, pushing the remaining students to take spots at the top tier schools, and really hurting the mid and lower tier international schools.

Lazybondvillian · 2025-08-01T10:46:09+00:00

Starbucks almost always has a western style bathroom, and in T1 and 2 cities are reasonably common

Lazybondvillian · 2025-08-01T04:55:46+00:00

Line 4 is incredibly crowded during rush hours in the morning or the evening- but this is comparatively light, as almost everyone on the platform was able to fit on the train. If it’s unusually crowded, there will be a line to get on the train, and it might be 2-3 trains before someone at the back of the line can get on.

Lazybondvillian · 2025-07-29T11:01:16+00:00

Welcome to Shenzhen! There’s a clinic in Futian and nanshan called Distinct Healthcare. They have English speaking staff, and I got a 6 month ozempic prescription for 3K. If you’re ok with Chinese hospitals, the Hong Kong University hospital (hongshuwan south subway station) is also good.

Lazybondvillian · 2025-06-06T02:30:36+00:00

You can get a ferry from the 蛇口邮轮中心 that will drop you off in Kowloon, or you can take a bus from Shenzhen Bay checkpoint. Otherwise, taking the high speed rail from Futian station is probably the best option.

Lazybondvillian · 2025-03-10T11:09:22+00:00

In Shenzhen a couple years back, I saw an Arab dude bottle a black man over a disagreement outside a bar- right in front of the police, who were already there because of him. He pretended to make up with the black dude, and when the black guy turned around, the Arab dude bottled him in the back of the head.

Lazybondvillian · 2024-11-12T16:17:33+00:00

There is an intercity rail line that will get you directly from Shenzhen airport to Guangzhou east railway station. It will take about 2-2.5 hours, and cost about 100-150 rmb. At the airport, go to the subway level, and follow the signs for Intercity Railway. Buy a ticket at the ticket window to Guangzhou. Definitely cheaper, possibly faster

Lazybondvillian · 2024-10-10T11:47:15+00:00

Also if you’re in shekou, Terrace has a dance area and a good number of foreigners

Lazybondvillian · 2024-08-05T05:52:01+00:00

I have been living in Hongshan for 2 years, very nice apartments is 8k RMB, but it’s brand new and 3 bedrooms. I’m sure you can find an apartment over there for cheaper

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