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Hong Kong to Shenzhen: Border Crossings, Rail Links and Ferries

Last updated: 3 October 2026

Crossing between Hong Kong and Shenzhen: the nine land crossings with official opening hours, the rail links, the ferries, and onward Shenzhen metro and rail.

The crossing list, the opening hours and the operational notes below were read on 3 October 2026 from Hong Kong's Immigration Department and from GovHK's cross-boundary pages, and the ferry operators and terminals from GovHK's ferry page. The 14-minute high-speed rail figure comes from the Shenzhen municipal government's own travel guide. Two source limits are declared up front: the Hong Kong pages name the crossings on the Hong Kong side only and do not publish the mainland-side port names, and MTR's own high-speed rail pages were not retrievable on 3 October 2026 (see Sources). No fare on this page is published, because none was retrieved. Sources are listed at the end.

What this page covers, and what it does not

This page is about crossing the boundary between Hong Kong and Shenzhen — which crossings exist, who is allowed through them, and when they are open.

It is not about flights, and it is not about the airport. If you are flying into Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport (SZX), the separate guide to getting from Shenzhen airport to the city covers that run, and its own cross-border section lists the airport's coach and ferry links to Hong Kong. If your question is whether you need a visa at all, that belongs to immigration policy, not to transport: see our visa-free entry guide.

The crossings, as Hong Kong's Immigration Department lists them

Hong Kong's Immigration Department publishes 13 control points covering air, land and sea travel, with a description and the opening hours of each. All 13 are reproduced below exactly as that page states them, because two of them matter for a Hong Kong–Shenzhen trip in ways a summary would hide: one is suspended, and one is not open around the clock.

#	Control point	Type	Opening hours	As the Immigration Department describes it
1	Hong Kong International Airport	Air	Terminal 1: 24 hours; Terminal 2: 05:15 to 00:15 the next day	Shorter waiting time for entry
2	Lo Wu	Land (rail)	06:30 to midnight	The major land boundary control point, with a purpose-built Visitor Clearance Hall; longer waits at peak hours, peak seasons, holidays and weekends
3	Lok Ma Chau	Land (road)	24 hours	The land boundary control point for cross-boundary vehicles — Lok Ma Chau–Huanggang Cross Boundary Shuttle Buses, cross-boundary coaches, cross-boundary goods vehicles (to and from Futian Bonded Zone only) and cross-boundary private vehicles
4	Lok Ma Chau Spur Line	Land (rail)	06:30 to 22:30	Longer waits at peak hours, peak seasons, holidays and weekends
5	Man Kam To	Land (road)	07:00 to 22:00	Shorter waiting time for entry
6	Sha Tau Kok	Land (road)	Clearance services suspended until further notice	Clearance services at Sha Tau Kok Control Point have been suspended
7	China Ferry Terminal	Sea	07:00 to midnight	Shorter waiting time for entry
8	Macao Ferry Terminal	Sea	24 hours	Shorter waiting time for entry
9	Shenzhen Bay	Land (road)	Passenger Clearance Building and private cars: 06:30 to midnight; goods vehicle clearance: 24 hours	One of the busy land boundary control points in Hong Kong; longer waits at peak hours, peak seasons, holidays and weekends
10	Kai Tak Cruise Terminal	Sea	06:00 to 23:00, subject to the berthing schedule of cruise liners	Shorter waiting time for entry
11	Express Rail Link West Kowloon	Land (rail)	06:30 to 23:30	Longer waits at peak hours, peak seasons, holidays and weekends
12	Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge	Land (road)	24 hours	The first land-boundary control point linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao
13	Heung Yuen Wai	Land (road)	07:00 to 22:00	The first land boundary control point that offers "direct access by passengers and vehicles"

Three consequences worth reading off that table:

• Sha Tau Kok is not an option. Its clearance services are suspended until further notice — a fact that does not survive in maps or in most listicles.
• Only three of the road crossings are open around the clock, and they are not all Shenzhen crossings: Hong Kong International Airport, Lok Ma Chau, the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge and Macao Ferry Terminal are 24-hour, while Lo Wu, Shenzhen Bay's passenger clearance and West Kowloon's rail checkpoint all close between 22:30 and midnight.
• Shenzhen Bay splits its hours by traffic type. Its passenger building closes at midnight while its goods-vehicle clearance runs 24 hours — relevant if you are moving freight rather than yourself.

Nine land crossings: six road, three rail

GovHK's cross-boundary page states the structure plainly: "There are nine land crossings in Hong Kong. Six of them (Shenzhen Bay Port, Lok Ma Chau, Man Kam To, Sha Tau Kok, Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge and Heung Yuen Wai) are road-based land crossings, while the other three (Lo Wu, Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and Hong Kong West Kowloon High Speed Rail Station) are rail-based."

That single sentence is the cleanest way to plan: if you are on a train, your choices are Lo Wu, Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and West Kowloon. Everything else on the land side is a road crossing, whether you cross in a coach, a shuttle bus, a car or on foot.

What GovHK does not publish on that page, and what no Hong Kong government page retrieved for this article publishes, is the mainland-side name of each crossing. The Immigration Department's own descriptions name only one mainland counterpart — the Lok Ma Chau–Huanggang Cross Boundary Shuttle Bus. Readers looking for the Shenzhen-side port names should take them from the Shenzhen authorities' own publications rather than from this page.

Rail: Lo Wu, the spur line, and West Kowloon

Three rail-based crossings appear on the list, and they are not interchangeable.

Lo Wu is described by the Immigration Department as "the major land boundary control point" and is the only one with a purpose-built Visitor Clearance Hall. It shares its opening pattern with most of the system — 06:30 to midnight — and the department warns that waits are longer at peak hours, peak travel seasons, holidays and weekends.

Lok Ma Chau Spur Line is the shorter-hours rail crossing: 06:30 to 22:30, closed two hours earlier than Lo Wu.

Express Rail Link West Kowloon is the high-speed rail checkpoint, open 06:30 to 23:30. Its own note repeats the peak-hours warning. Note what this means in practice: the checkpoint is where immigration happens, so a late-evening train does not extend your usable window past 23:30.

For how the rail network is booked, what the different seat classes cost in practice and what the station process looks like, see our guides to booking high-speed rail in China and to China's train seat classes.

One limit to declare: MTR Corporation's own high-speed rail pages were not retrievable on 3 October 2026 — the English timetable path returned a 403 and the corporate page returned a "website temporarily not available" notice. This page therefore prints no MTR fare and no MTR timetable, and the only journey time it prints is the one the Shenzhen municipal government publishes (below).

Rail on the Shenzhen side: what the city itself says

The Shenzhen municipal government's travel guide, published by the city's Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports Bureau and updated 9 February 2026, states that Shenzhen has 18 metro lines and four high-speed railway stations, connecting to a national high-speed rail network of 25,000 kilometres and allowing "a direct 14-minute high-speed rail trip to Hong Kong."

That 14-minute figure is the city government's own characterisation of the high-speed link, not a timetable and not a fare. It is reproduced here as the Shenzhen authority publishes it, and nothing is inferred from it about frequency, price or which station pair it describes.

Road: shuttles, coaches and cars

The road side of the list reads as a hierarchy of who may pass:

• Lok Ma Chau is the crossing built for vehicles — the Immigration Department lists the Lok Ma Chau–Huanggang Cross Boundary Shuttle Buses, cross-boundary coaches, cross-boundary goods vehicles (to and from Futian Bonded Zone only) and cross-boundary private vehicles.
• Shenzhen Bay handles passengers, private cars and, separately, goods vehicles around the clock.
• Man Kam To (07:00–22:00) and Heung Yuen Wai (07:00–22:00) carry shorter waits; Heung Yuen Wai is described as the first land boundary control point offering "direct access by passengers and vehicles".
• Sha Tau Kok is suspended.

Driving yourself across is a separate regime, not a walk-up option. GovHK routes it through permits: a Closed Road Permit is required for restricted areas including control points between Hong Kong and the mainland such as Lok Ma Chau, Huanggang or Shenzhen Bay Port; Hong Kong private cars may also use the online ad hoc quota scheme to self-drive into Guangdong via Shenzhen Bay Port. Application routes and forms are published by Hong Kong's Transport Department, and a mainland driving licence is a separate application made in person at a Vehicle Administration Office in Guangdong. Those requirements are pointers, not a checklist — conditions and quotas change, so confirm them with the Transport Department before relying on them.

Sea: the ferries to Shekou and the Pearl River Delta ports

GovHK's ferry page names the two operators that matter for this corridor and the terminals they sail from:

Operator	Telephone	Hong Kong boarding terminals	Destinations as GovHK lists them
Chu Kong Passenger Transport Company Limited (Chu Kong)	3018 3798	China Ferry Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui; Hong Kong–Macao Ferry Terminal, Sheung Wan (only for Shekou sailings)	6 ports in Guangdong Province, including Shekou, Zhongshan, Nansha, Shenzhen, Shunde and Pazhou
Shun Tak–China Travel Ship Management Limited (TurboJET)	2859 3333	Hong Kong–Macao Ferry Terminal, Sheung Wan; China Ferry Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui	Zhuhai Jiuzhou Port

The two terminals are managed by Hong Kong's Marine Department, which publishes its own contact numbers: China Ferry Terminal 2738 2902 (Deck 2, 33 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui) and Hong Kong–Macao Ferry Terminal 2547 4386 (Deck 3, Shun Tak Centre, 200 Connaught Road Central, Sheung Wan). A third terminal, SkyPier at Hong Kong International Airport, is restricted to transiting air passengers only — you cannot use it to enter Hong Kong.

Two things this page deliberately leaves out: no sailing times and no fares, because GovHK's page publishes the operators, the terminals and the destinations but not the timetables, and no operator timetable was retrieved for this article. Frequencies on a cross-boundary ferry route change with the season, and the operator's own site is the source of record.

Onward in Shenzhen: paying for the metro with a foreign card

For a visitor arriving across the boundary, the Shenzhen metro is the practical first step, and the operator's own announcement removes the usual obstacle. Shenzhen Metro (深圳地铁) states that from 10 September 2026 every gate channel at all 432 stations across its 17 operating lines accepts international bank cards for tap-to-ride, covering UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and JCB — cards issued in more than 200 countries and regions. The service began as a trial on 30 June 2026; the operator reports roughly 2,205 foreign-card transactions a day, a single-day peak of 7,369, and more than 150,000 passengers served since the trial opened. Its stated condition is that the card must support contactless payment and be enabled for small-amount no-password payment.

That matters because it means you do not need to buy a local transit card or change cash to ride the metro — the operator's own words. For payment more generally in China, our guide to Alipay for foreigners covers the app side of the same problem.

If you are staying in Shenzhen

Which crossing you use changes which part of the city you land in. Our guide to where to stay in Shenzhen and the Shenzhen city page cover the districts and what is where; the city page also carries the day-count question — how many days Shenzhen is worth — that this transport page deliberately leaves alone.

⚠️ Source-level disclosure. Two limits are material and are repeated here so they are not lost:

1. The mainland-side port names are not published by any Hong Kong government page retrieved. The Immigration Department names each crossing by its Hong Kong-side name and names only one mainland counterpart, Huanggang, inside the shuttle-bus description. This page therefore does not assert which Shenzhen port faces which Hong Kong crossing, apart from the Lok Ma Chau–Huanggang shuttle bus that the Immigration Department names itself.
2. MTR Corporation's own high-speed rail pages were not retrievable on 3 October 2026. The English timetable path returned HTTP 403, the microsite root returned an empty 200, and `mtr.com.hk` returned an HTTP 200 page reading "MTR Website Temporarily Not Available" (港鐵網站服務暫停). Consequently no MTR fare, timetable, journey time or frequency is printed on this page, and no MTR figure is inferred. The single rail journey time printed — 14 minutes — is the Shenzhen municipal government's, and is attributed to it in the text and the FAQ above.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

All sources retrieved 3 October 2026. This page is an independent reading of the sources listed; the official pages themselves are the specification.

Fact used on this page	Source
S1 — The list of 13 Hong Kong control points, the type of each (air / land / sea), the description of each and every opening hour quoted in the table, including that Lo Wu is "the major land boundary control point" with a purpose-built Visitor Clearance Hall, that Lok Ma Chau serves the Lok Ma Chau–Huanggang Cross Boundary Shuttle Buses and cross-boundary goods vehicles to and from Futian Bonded Zone only, that clearance at Sha Tau Kok is suspended until further notice, that Shenzhen Bay's passenger clearance ends at midnight while goods clearance runs 24 hours, that Heung Yuen Wai is the first control point offering "direct access by passengers and vehicles", and that the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge is the first land-boundary control point linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao	Hong Kong Immigration Department — Control Point Locations (page dated 26-06-2026; retrieved 2026-10-03) https://www.immd.gov.hk/eng/contactus/control_points.html
S2 — That there are nine land crossings in Hong Kong, that six are road-based and three rail-based, and which ones fall into each group (quoted verbatim); that a Closed Road Permit is required for restricted areas including control points between Hong Kong and the mainland such as Lok Ma Chau, Huanggang or Shenzhen Bay Port; that Hong Kong private cars can self-drive into Guangdong via Shenzhen Bay Port under an online ad hoc quota scheme; that a mainland driving licence is applied for in person at a Vehicle Administration Office in Guangdong	GovHK — Cross Boundary Travel, Land-based Cross Boundary Transport (last revision date December 2025; retrieved 2026-10-03) https://www.gov.hk/en/residents/transport/crossboundary/index.htm
S3 — The ferry operators (Chu Kong Passenger Transport, telephone 3018 3798, and Shun Tak–China Travel Ship Management / TurboJET, telephone 2859 3333), their Hong Kong boarding terminals, that Sheung Wan is used only for Shekou sailings, the six Guangdong destinations including Shekou and Shenzhen, that TurboJET's listed destination is Zhuhai Jiuzhou Port, the terminal addresses, that SkyPier is restricted to transiting air passengers only, and the Marine Department terminal telephone numbers 2738 2902 and 2547 4386	GovHK — Ferry Services to Macao and the Chinese Mainland Ports (last revision date January 2026; retrieved 2026-10-03) https://www.gov.hk/en/residents/transport/crossboundary/ferryservices.htm
S4 — That Shenzhen has 18 metro lines and four high-speed railway stations, connecting to a national high-speed rail network of 25,000 km and allowing "a direct 14-minute high-speed rail trip to Hong Kong"	Shenzhen Municipal Government Online — Travel Guide, published by the Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality, updated 2026-02-09 (retrieved 2026-10-03) http://www.sz.gov.cn/en_szgov/travel/guide/index.html
S5 — That from 10 September 2026 every gate channel at all 432 stations across Shenzhen Metro's 17 operating lines accepts international bank cards for tap-to-ride; the five card schemes covered; cards from more than 200 countries and regions; the trial start date of 30 June 2026; about 2,205 foreign-card transactions a day, a single-day peak of 7,369 and more than 150,000 passengers served; and the operating condition that the card must support contactless payment with small-amount no-password payment enabled	Shenzhen Metro Group (深圳地铁) — operator news release, Chinese (retrieved 2026-10-03) https://www.szmc.net/

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