No Worries: Shenzhen to Hong Kong Via Transfer Van

The Shenzen to Hong Kong Van Transfer Transport Review is part of The Year of the Monkey Trip Report which covers the following places:

• New York, New York 
• Bangkok, Thailand
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 
• Jakarta, Indonesia
• Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 
• Guangzhou, China 
• Hong Kong 
• Shenzhen, China
• Sanya, China

I needed a direct way to get to the airport from the Grand Hyatt Shenzhen. The train would have been inconvenient so I booked a transfer from my hotel for only 200 RMB. I thought it was going to be a bus which takes passengers to the border, requires them to disembark at the border, go through immigration, and hop back on. Instead, it was a van with three other passengers which was headed straight to the airport.

Crossing borders in a car is not very common for me. Besides Canada and Mexico, my only experience crossing into a foreign country via private transfer was from Bulgaria to Romania.

When we arrived at the Chinese border, the driver presented our passports to the agent. I am always nervous crossing by car because of the countless times that I have been randomly stopped. Once on my way into Windsor, Canada, I was stopped by an American military member who pointed his gun at my vehicle. That was interesting. When does an American get stopped by an American when he is leaving the United Sates? Not often. Actually, it happened another time on my way to Canada via the Sarnia border. There, I was given the royal treatment which included a massaging of my testicles by the border agent.

And now you can understand why I did not appreciate that one of the passengers was on the phone when we were at the China-Hong Kong border. After years of being searched, I have established the following protocol at border crossings:

• Never joke near the border. (Call me paranoid but I think they have bugs everywhere.)
• Turn off the phone
• Turn off the music
• Roll down all the windows.
• Keep the car in drive. Putting the car in park means you have reason to be stopped.
• Maintain eye contact with the officer.
• Try not to stutter when answering the simplest questions.
• Use sir or ma’am when addressing the officer.

I’m getting nervous just writing about this.

This time around, my nervousness was unwarranted. The officer checked our passports and sent us on our way. Thirty minutes later we were at the airport.