Hong Kong China Border

I wouldn’t normally regale my trip across Hong Kong and through the Shenzhen border, but when preparing for this small trip, I didn’t find any info on the route to Shenzhen Xi Train Station.

I stop by the travel agent in Hong Kong to finalise the next segment of my journey, where I’m handed my train ticket from Shenzhen to Huangshan. Here Kelvin warns me that the train leaves from the West Station in Shenzhen, which is much further from the border than the main station – basically it is in the middle of nowhere.

Route

My route out of Hong Kong should work along these lines …
Take the MTR from Sheung Wan (??) – Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) – Tsim Sha Tsui East – West Rail Link to Hong Hom – East Rail Link to Lo Wu and the Shenzen border – Shenzhen West Train Station (???) – Huangshan (??).

I am told I need to allow one hour to travel across Hong Kong, thirty minutes to pass immigration thirty minutes to reach the train station, I add 30 minutes delay and hope to arrive at the train station 30 minutes before departure. My train is at 12:05, I plan to set off at 9am.

So, that’s my plan. Roll on Tuesday morning. Apart from leaving the flat near Hollywood a bit late, all goes according to plan, but not without a little added stress to make things interesting.

Just arrived in TST East
Originally uploaded by Andreas.

Getting to TST is easy, a journey I’ve done many times before. I know there’s an interchange at Tsim Sha Tsui and I need to walk between stations but I can’t see the signs. I queue up at the Service Desk, but the one staff member is busy with a queue on the other side. I’m already running late and feeling the strain of my backpack. She tells me the way and how to follow the signs to East Tsim Sha Tsui. Sorted, but it’s a long walk, along the huge underpass with moving walkways which seem to go on forever. There are very few people in the underpass and I see a nice angle for a photo, if only I had more time to mess around … I eventually arrive at TST East and I had to wait a bit for the West Rail link train to travel just one stop to Hong Hom. But then a pleasant surprise as the East Rail Link train is waiting for me on the opposite platform. That’s all good, saved me a possible 10 minute wait in my schedule. It’s not a busy train so room to spread out and relax. The train departs and is soon overland. The stops go by, Kowloon Tong, Sha Tin (racing anyone?), University, Tai Po Market (shopping anyone?), Tai Wo and passed more green open space, supplemented by tall buildings, busy roads, little mini buses and finally Lo Wu. The train took the 45 minutes as I expected but time is still running short.

In hindsight, I think it would have been easier and quicker to avoid Tsim Sha Tsui altogether and instead stay on the metro to Kowloon Tong and change there to the East Rail Link. I’ll probably find out that the platforms are next to each other there!

At the Border

Which kind do you belong to?
Originally uploaded by Winnie Quan

I am at Lo Wu at the Hong Kong / Chinese border. I have 1hr, 10 mins to get through immigration, customs and across to the West Station. I have been worried about running out of time all morning, I really don’t know why I didn’t leave home a little bit earlier, but that’s just not my style is it! What’s worse, if I miss this train there’s no alternative train option to get to Huangshan. I’ll basically be stuck in Shenzhen for a whole day, or mess around flying via other cities and taking train / bus connections to ensure I meet Chris in time for the trek up the mountain. Anyway, let’s not think about that.

Immigration is quicker than I expected, with three channels, for ‘HK Citizens’, ‘Mainland Visitors’ and one other I can’t read on the pale background from this distance. I am a visitor to the mainland, so perhaps that’s me. Nah, I see, the third option is ‘Other Visitors’ so I cut across the lines diagonally and glad I’m in the minority for my chosen route – there are just a couple of Australian women in front of me and some Russians in the queue to the side. I’ve already picked up the health declaration form and immigration form and remembered to have a pen on my person so fill these out as I wait. But there’s a problem. It seems I by-passed the health check, which is only required for foreign passport holders. That holds true, after all I remember reading that Swine Flu was carried to China by the American’s. I hurdle over the barriers to the health check, by this time a little sweaty under the rush and heavy bags but receive the all clear on my body temperature check and have my form stamped. Immigration on the second attempt was easy and the official even stamps by passport on a used page, rather than starting afresh on a big empty page as so often happens!

Customs is irrelevant and I am soon back in China, but with less than an hour before my train leaves. If I had more time on my hands I could have taken the Metro Line 1(??1??) from one end at ‘Luo Hu’ (??), to the other at ‘Shi Jie Zhi Chuang’ (????) and then still had a taxi ride. Of course, if I had practically any other train ticket, I would be leaving from Shenzhen Heping Station, just a short distance away. As it is I need to look for the taxi rank. A few touts approach me and I successfully fend them off, but can’t find the taxi rank. I approach a police-type-looking-man and ask him for a taxi. He obligingly passes me back me directly into the hands of the taxi tout. With the clock ticking it seems I have no choice and so tell him I have a 12 o’clock train to catch. He checks his watch and takes off at a fast pace across the terminus. Oh shit. I follow behind with my backpack bouncing on my back and leap down flights of stairs after the driver to the car park, where he introduces me to the drivers’ office and piles me into a Buick Station Wagon. No use to barter now, he knows I’m in his pocket so I accept the tout’s price of ¥200. He goes on to explain the high price on the toll roads we’ll take. Whatever. I hand over the cash, he’s not interested in my last HK$ though, but luckily I have some RMB as well.

Fun Taxi Journey

taxi
Originally uploaded by conbon33

It’s now 11.10 and he says it will take around half an hour to reach the station. I know from experience that can easily end up being forty minutes or more and then I’ll be cutting it really fine. He is a good driver, speeding along the dual carriageway and deftly zipping in and out of the assortment of vehicles that take to the roads in any Chinese city – bicyclists, electric cyclists, three wheeled bikes, small tractors, minivans, cars, buses, bigger buses, trucks, container ships, blind people, army battalions. Few of whom who understand the concepts of right of way, or red traffic lights. A near miss as a motorbike contraption with a trailer on the back shoots across a junction with his load of fluorescent tubes piled high and swaying from side to side.

I’m not getting to see much of Shenzhen, except other traffic. But I notice the skies are bluish – relatively clear, the air warm and smelling of petrol fumes.

I need to think of Plan B. I wonder where the first stop is after the train departs Shenzhen Xi. Maybe it’s worth phoning the Beijing office and have them look into it. I’m thinking the taxi could drive to ‘insert name of tiny station’ so I can catch up with the train. I later find out that train stops at Bantian (??) and then Dongguan East (???). I could have taken a train from Shenzhen border (or even Hong Hom?) to Dongguan East and boarded the train there – a whole 1hr15mins later as well. Now that’s definitely something to remember. Not that I’m ever likely to take the train from Shenzhen Xi to Huangshan or Nanjing Xi ever again.

The driver is soon driving down the fulou and makes a sharp u-turn. It seems he has tried to make a short cut and ended up in a new car sales centre. As much as I’d like to buy a new Peugeot, I’d rather take the train this time thank you very much. But this industrial lot is, apparently, as far as I’m going to go. The low shed like building behind the bus depot is the West Station. Relief. It’s 11:50 as I bid farewell to my driver and walk towards the station entrance. Very few passengers around and I’m humoured by the sign informing all that ‘gates close 5 minutes before departure’. Plenty of time then.

I deposit my bags in the Soft Sleeper waiting room and buy some drinks for the journey. I even have time to go in search of an ATM. Unfortunately it doesn’t accept foreign cards. I head back to the waiting room and soon the gates are open and I board my train.

So, one segment of my journey is complete, the next is to survive 19 hours on a train with only HK$ in my wallet!

In Hindsight

Although untested, I think the following route would have worked much better …

MTR from Sheung Wan (??) – Kowloong Tong – East Rail Link to Lo Wu and the Shenzen border – Local train from Shenzhen Heping – Dongguan East (???) – K26 to Huangshan (??).