How to reach the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region with maximum hitchhiking and minimum expenditure from Guangzhou?
Soon I need to get from Guangzhou to Hong Kong as this entry of my China visa will expire.
I'm totally ignorant of Hong Kong. Is there only an island or is part of it also on the mainland you never hear about that has a land border?
If there is a land border can I cross on foot or must I take a train or bus? (I like to cross land borders on foot.) If there is only an island part are there are multiple places in nearby mainland China that I can board a ferry to Hong Kong? For instance straight from Guangzhou vs from Shenzen?
I don't care if I would be arriving right in the city of Hong Kong or somewhere in the countryside - if there is such a thing there. I just want the cheapest.
My preference is to hitchhike as far as possible before I must take public transport due to laws or regulations. If I can hitchhike to the China checkpoint and walk to the HK checkpoint but can't proceed further on foot. Or maybe there's some bus or train that one must board on the China side and continue on into HK after passing the checkpoint(s).
If there are multiple land border crossings I want the one that has the shortest mandatory public transport section and/or the lowest fare for the mandatory transport.
The point is to undertake the minimal crossing in terms of both charges incurred and going not under my own steam.
Best Answer
Hong Kong consists of a number of islands, and also a sizeable chunk of mainland, called the New Territories. The New Territories are the larger part of Hong Kong, but also the least densely populated, least interesting and least visited. Kowloon is a more populated and residential area, also part of the mainland, surrounded by the New Territories.
Shenzhen is the city of mainland China that borders Hong Kong. There are a number of crossing points nearby, and an excellent train service from the border to central Hong Kong. There are no ferries that I know of - most people coming to Hong Kong from China (and there are lots of them) use the train or fly. (There is an excellent if very short ferry ride from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island, which is well worth the 75c it costs, despite the fact that a train will do the same trip in a tenth the time for not much more.)
I'm afraid I have no knowledge at all of hitchhiking in the area. However Hong Kong transit is both incredibly efficient and very cheap. It's best to get an Octopus card as soon as you get there and use it all the time. You can use them in vending machines as well as on transit.
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HONG KONG - A SPECIAL Administrative Region of the PRC
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