Journey to Hong Kong

ferry at hong kong airport skypier terminal

The fastest way going from Hong Kong airport to Shenzhen airport, over vice versa, will be taking the ferry.

If you arrive in Hong Kong International Airport, use the ferry service at the Airport’s Skypier. There is ferry from here to Shenzhen Fuyong pier, the journey time of which is 45 minutes. Once you arrive at the Shenzhen Fuyong pier, there is free shuttle bus going to the Shenzhen Baoan International Airport, taking about 10 minutes.

Below is the ferry schedule, departing from Hong Kong International Airport’s SkyPier at:

1130; 1245; 1415; 1540; 1645; 1830; 1950

Departing from Shenzhen Airport at:

0830; 0930; 1100; 1300; 1425; 1530; 1700; 1830

Ticket price is HK$295/RMB272 one way.

One minus point is that the ferry service is not very frequent, especially that it stops after 8pm on Hong Kong’s end, and after 6:30pm on Shenzhen’s end.

If you land in Shenzhen airport and want to go to Hong Kong DisneyLand Park, please make sure that your flight lands early. 

There are buses running from Shenzhen Airport direct to Hong Kong DisneyLand Park between 8:20am – 11am, every 20 minutes. The bus fare is RMB150. The bus will go via Huanggang border, and you will need to change to another bus of the same bus company after the border crossing. But this should be easy. Just follow the directions or the passengers in the same bus. 

Ticketing:

Block A of Shezhen Airport (near the middle gate of the Arrival Hall), or Block B (next to the No.5 gate)

I think there is some confusion surrounding the names “Huanggang” and “Lok Ma Chau”, regarding the border crossing between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. So I hope this post can help dispel some of the confusion.

The confusion arises probably because the names all have at least two references.

Firstly, “Huanggang”. It has two references coming to the border crossing. Most people will take it as meaning the Huanggang/Lok Ma Chau border which is open 24 hours. Correct. Huanggang is the border name for Shenzhen side, while Lok Ma Chau is the border name for Hong Kong side.

But “Huanggang” actually has second reference. It is the name of the station of the Shenzhen underground system which connects to Hong Kong/Shenzhen’s another border crossing – the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line/Fu Tian crossing, which came into operation in 2007. Lok Ma Chau Spur Line is the name of the control point at Hong Kong side, and Fu Tian, name of the control point at Shenzhen side. Right after the crossing, at the Shenzhen side, is the Huanggang underground station.

Now you know for “Lok Ma Chau”, it has two references too. It refers to the border name of Hong Kong for the 24 hour Huanggang/Lok Ma Chau border crossing.

Platform of Lok Ma Chau MTR station

It also refers to one of the last stations of the East Rail Line of the Hong Kong train system (another last station is Lo Wu). You take the train to this station for the above mentioned “Lok Ma Chau Spur Line/Fu Tian crossing. This crossing is not 24 hours, and open from 6:30am to 10:30pm only.

And the Lo Wu crossing, a primary passenger crossing between Hong Kong and Shenzhen with rail connection at both sides, is open from 6:30am to midnight.

Since there has been interest in the transport between Hong Kong International Airport and Shenzhen, I thought I would post on the topic. So here it goes.

In terms of border corssing bus transport, no service is better than that offered by Hong Kong China Travel Service (CTS). It runs frequent bus service between Hong Kong International Airpot and different hotel spots in Shezhen/Shenzhen Airport via the border of Huangguang (shenzhen side)/Lok Ma Chau (hong kong side).

There is a Mainland Coach Station in Terminal 2 of the Hong Kong International Airport. This is the boarding point. For ticketing, if you are in Terminal 1, go to the Arrival Hall Counter A09 (CTS counter); if you are in Terminal 2, go to the Coach Station C05.

There are at least 3 CTS buses you can take. I quote one of the buses below. For more choices and details pls check out here

Bus 1:

Schedule of bus from Hong Kong International Airport (via Huanggang) to Shenzhen Bao Li Lai Hotel:

08:05; 09:05; 10:05; 11:05; 12:05; 13:05; 14:05; 15:05; 17:05; 18:05; 19:05; 20:05

Schedule of bus from Shenzhen Bao Li Lai Hotel to Hong Kong International Airport (via Huanggang):

06:40; 07:40; 09:10; 10:10; 11:10; 12:10; 13:10; 14:10; 15:10; 16:10; 17:10: 18:10

The bus fare is HK$100-150 per journey (Hong Kong International Airport to Huanggang) – early and late buses will charge more.

The last bus to depart Hong Kong International Airport for the Huanggang border/Shenzhen is 22:00. If you arrive in Hong Kong later than this time, then you may need to think about another way to travel to Huanggang, such as by taking the Hong Kong MTR.

Lok Ma Chau - Huanggang border crossing, with the bridge linking HK and Shenzhen

The Huang Gang (皇崗) (name of the border at Shenzhen side) / Lok Ma Chau (落馬洲) (name of the border at Hong Kong side) border crossing is the only 24-hr border crossing between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. So if you will arrive late at either of the cities, you will have to use this border crossing.

If you land in Shenzhen airport late at night and want to go to Hong Kong, it is most convenient to take a taxi to the border. It will cost about RMB130 by taxi and take about 45 minutes.

Once you have gone through the Shenzhen control point, you will need to take a shuttle bus (called yellow bus) at HK$7 to the Hong Kong Lok Ma Chau Control point. Then you will land at a traffic interchange. Here you can find 24-hr transportation to the city, such as the 616S night bus going to Mongkok every 20 minutes.

Also, every day, there are 24-hr buses going between the border and Wanchai Pier/MTR Prince Station/MTR Tsuen Wan Station. The bus fare is about HK$40 per journey.

If you plan to take a taxi from the border to Kowloon or Hong Kong Island, do remember to take red taxis. Only red taxis go to these two regions. The green taxis go only around New Territories, where Lok Ma Chau belongs. It will cost about HK$300 by taxi to Tsim Sha Tsui, or HK$350-400 to Central.

The easiest and fastest way to travel to Shenzhen from Hong Kong is by taking the train operated by Hong Kong MTR.

There are a few train lines, such as Ma On Shan Line, Island Line, Kwun Tong Line, East Rail Line and West Rail line. The one that goes to Shenzhen is East Rail Line. Lowu is the station that you should aim at, the last of the rail line.  After getting off the Lowu station, the immigration counters of Hong Kong is right close at hand. Then you proceed to the immigration counters of Shenzhen, which is about a bridge away.

The East Rail train is very frequent, one every 2-3 minutes. Use this search at the MTR website, key in where you start (say you stay in Central, then presumably, you will start from the Central Station on the Island Line), and then key in your destination Lowu of the East Rail Line, the search result will tell you how long the journey time will be, and how to transfer from one line to another in order to reach your destination. You will be shown the train fare as well.

Also at the end of  the East Rail Line is Lok Ma Chau station, which allows you to cross border to the Futian Port at the Shenzhen side. This border crossing is only one year old, used by much fewer people than the Lowu crossing. You will need to transfer at the Sheung Shui station, the second last station of the East Rail Line, so as to broad the train to Lok Ma Chau station, or take the East Rail train whose destination is Lok Ma Chau station.

Look at the route map of the Hong Kong MTR trains , and you will understand better.

Also, see my previous post about the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line – Fu Tian Port Crossing.