Side trip to Hong Kong.

[RobertH]

I was telling ?my wife that this time when we go to Shenzhen I would like to go see Hong Kong. I have been through Hong Kong three times but never actually been to Hong Kong. My wife said this might be hard to do because she is traveling on a Chinese Passport and her US green card would not allow her entry into Hong Kong. This makes sense to me as she is still a Chinese national. Is there anyway around her having to get a special visa to go from Shenzhen to Hong Kong. She said that if she needed to apply for the special visa it would take up to 30 days to get it.

any ideas?

[Randy W]

I was telling ?my wife that this time when we go to Shenzhen I would like to go see Hong Kong. I have been through Hong Kong three times but never actually been to Hong Kong. My wife said this might be hard to do because she is traveling on a Chinese Passport and her US green card would not allow her entry into Hong Kong. This makes sense to me as she is still a Chinese national. Is there anyway around her having to get a special visa to go from Shenzhen to Hong Kong. She said that if she needed to apply for the special visa it would take up to 30 days to get it.

 

any ideas?

 

 

I wouldn't have thought it would take the 30 days, but she would know better than I would. Jiaying says that everytime we go to the PSB Entry/Exit Bureau, most of the people there are applying for travel permits to Hong Kong.

[dnoblett]

Here is a thread on the topic.

http://hongkong.geoexpat.com/forum/54/thread73861.html

[dan1984]

Yes, you can get the entry/exit permit from your local PSB. If your wife has been to Hong Kong before and she already has the "little permit booklet," near the border crossing between Shenzhen/Hong Kong there are dozens of little tourist agencies that can extend your wife's permit for like RMB 50, and you don't need to go back to your wife's hometown (if that is inconvenient) to extend it there in person. I think these agencies basically add you to a tourist group but in reality you're just going in to Hong Kong to sight-see by yourself..........but, not exactly sure..........

[msittig]

A cousin of my wife's went to Hong Kong on a hukou that doesn't grant many privileges, so I asked him about it and he showed me how there were dozens of sellers on Taobao (probably dan1984's travel agents) who would aggregate buyers and then get them travel permits as a "tour group" in name only. You/your wife could check into that.

[dan1984]

Oh yes! Taobao is another good place to get this done.

 

For Hong Kong it is easy, but Taiwan can still be a challenge. Apparently, from what I understand, if your hukou is from one of the provincial capitals or Beijing/Chongqing/Shanghai/Tianjin, you can get the same entry/exit permit for Taiwan to travel on your own. However, if you're from anywhere else, you can only go to Taiwan as part of a tour group/travel group.

 

Late this fall we were planning a potential trip to Taiwan, but lately we've hit this snag. It appears there could be a way around this (first go to Hong Kong, and then get the entry/exit permit for Taiwan there.....?), but, we're not sure, and still trying to see if there will be a way for us to go together - oh, and we don't want to go as part of a travel group, so that's not an option.

 

My lady is from a third tier city in Sichuan, so, no provincial capital benefits for us..........