Crossing between Hong Kong and Shenzhen

Hong Kong is part of China, Shenzhen is also part of China, but when you travel from one to other, you have to cross a border checkpoint just like you are crossing the border of two countries. One country, two systems!

Ok, the most popular and convenient checkpoint is no doubt LuoHu (罗湖) checkpoint. The inter-city train from Guangzhou East Railway station arrives directly at LuoHu checkpoint. You leave the train station, walk into the Mainland Chinese side of the immigration building, then walk to the Hong Kong side of the immigration building. Then you can walk directly to the Hong Kong MTR station which can bring you to anywhere in Hong Kong.

But LuoHu is usually very crowded with lots lots of people crossing the border. LuoHu area is also the breeding bed for all kinds of crimes, from petty theft to day-light robbery, to various scams by the con artists.

An alternative border crossing point, which I just discovered this past Chinese New Year, is the Futian Kou'an (福田口岸). From LuoHu train station, take Shenzhen's subway line 1 to Exhibition Centre, then transfer to line 3 to Futian Kou'an (福田口岸) station. The immigration building is part of the Shenzhen subway station building. On the other side of the border, that's Luo Ma Chow (落马州) station of Hong Kong's MTR train system. From there, you can go anywhere in Hong Kong too!

Futian Kou'an (福田口岸) is usually not crowded, with very few people in the immigration hall itself. Can you imagine I was there on the 3rd day of Chinese New Year and the immigration hall was mostly empty, while LuoHu side was very crowded.

From LuoHu or Luo Ma Chow to Hong Kong central is ~HK$43.00 on the MTR.

Next time, give Futian Kou'an (福田口岸) a try if you are crossing the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen :)