I recently went to Shenzhen for a interim meeting. I had taken the dragon air from bangalore to Hongkong. I had two options from there, either take a ferry or take a bus from outside. I opted for the former as i need not take the hongkong immigration. The ferry ride was good but was not so exciting as one could hardly see the shore as it was misty. I got through the chinese immigration and took a taxi. I had been warned that i should ask for a bill. I opted for it as soon as the driver said he will provide one. Then i came to know that we are supposed to take a taxi which has red color. They have meters and charge as per government rate. So i ended up paying extra. So if anyone of you are opting for ferry ensure that u look for the red taxi. Also always carry the hotel name in chinese character as no one speaks english.
In the return, as there was some Tsunami warning and i had no clue how safe was ferry i took the shared cab facility. I had some doubts about the visa and if i could go through hongkong by car. The hotel person did confimr that there is no issue. So i took the shared cab facility. The first incident happened at the chinese emigration as one guy had a visa which had expired few days back. He was taken out. Now we had another car coming to pick us up. We were three of us and then we enter Hong Kong immigration. There i had trouble. they asked that how can u enter hongkong without a stamp earlier. I was detained. I showed the ferry details and my flight details and they gave a temporary visa. Things were smooth but by now the earlier shared cab had left so i had to wait till the new car came. After an hour i boarded the cab which took me to hong kong. And as hongkong had people who talked good english i did not have much trouble. So in retrospect i was right to take the ferry.
Even though we read that now hongkong is part of china for all practical purpose they are two countries. :)
