Answer to One China Travel Question
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Q: I am a Indonesian. Do I need visa to enter Macau & Shenzhen, or other part of China for 4 days? And if yes or no, how long can I stay in Hong Kong or Macau or other cities of China? If I stay in Shenzhen what is cities near from there that I can visit for 1 day?
| | A: If you hold an Indonesian passport, you can stay in Hong Kong for up to 30 days without visa. You can also stay in Macau for up to 30 days with no visa. To visit Shenzhen or any other cities in China (Mailand China), you do need visa. If you're traveling as a member of a tourist group from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, a visa may not be required; you need to ask your tour operator about this. Other than that, a foreign citizen cannot enter mainland China without visa.
If you stay in Shenzhen, the closest major cities are Hong Kong (just across border), Macao (a couple of hours' trip), and, inside mainland China, Guangzhou, which is about two hours northwest of Shenzhen. Guangzhou (used to be known as Canton) is the capital of Guangdong Province. One can make a day trip from Shenzhen to the above cities, and return to Shenzhen on the same day. But, you need to keep in mind that if you stay in Shenzhen on a visa, once you leave mainland China to visit Hong Kong or Macau, you can not return to Shenzhen. Most likely your visa is single-entry, meaning that you can use it to enter and exit Mainland China only once.
Both Hong Kong and Macau are officially "special administrative regions" (SAR) of China, so they have visa requirements different from the rest of China (Mainland China).
If you're traveling to China for sightseeing, family visit, or other personally matters, most likely you'll be apply for Visa L, which is for tourists and gets up to 30 days in China. As mentioned above, you need to keep in mind that if you have a single entry visa (as an L visa is), you cannot enter mainland China twice with the same visa. So, if you have a single-entry visa, do whatever you need to do in mainland and then exit once for all (not really, but you get the point).
For those who are visiting China for business, there is F visa, which can be single-entry, double entry, multiple-entry in 6 months or a year, etc. One can enter or exit a number of times with this type of visa, and each stay is up to 30 days.
You can apply for your visa to enter China at the Chinese diplomatic-consular missions in your country or apply in Hong Kong. If you apply in Hong Kong, you can get your visa in a couple of days. If you're in a hurry, you need to pay for the rush service.
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