Refused Entry at the Hong Kong/ China Border !

We felt absolutely stupid standing at the train station in Hong Kong! We were trying to get back to Guangzhou, China after spending a few days in Hong Kong shopping for some wedding gifts for our relative. We were happy that we were able to buy some nice gifts after spending three days in Hong Kong. Mission accomplished! We were ready to re enter Guangzhou to countinue our vacation and visiting friends in China. After clearing through at the Hong Kong border security we came to the last stop, the Chinese Immigration custom. The Chinese officer was nice and polite. After looking over our Canadian passports containing our Chinese visas, he said gently to us, “ Your Chinese visa has just expired. How long are you planning to stay in China and where do you want to go?”

We felt like a total idiot standing in front of this Chinese immigration officer. Knowing that our Canadian passports were coming up for renewal in 2026, we just assumed our Chinese visas would be expiring at the same time without checking the expiry date. We went into China two weeks ago before the expiry date and then went to HK for a few days. But when we wanted to re enter China, our Chinese visas have just expired. How foolish were we! Stunned, we didn’t know what to do. We informed the officer of our plan: ‘ We plan to visit Guangzhou, and then Shanghai and are planning to be there for a few weeks.” "Oh, you will be in China for more than ten days?" replied the officer. With that we were handed over to another officer who escorted us to the Hong Kong Immigration Customs where we waited for what would happen next. After about twenty minutes, the HK Border officer gave us some information as to where to apply for a new Chinese visa in Hong Kong should we want to continue our trip in China. Along with us was a young Russian lady who just started a job in ShenZhen and came over to HK for a few hours but was denied re entry to China as she had some documents missing. What could we say? This totally was our own fault as we didn't do our own diligence. We needed to shoulder the consequences and booked another hotel in Waichi in the Hong Kong central district. We would spend the next few days here trying to get a new Chinese visa. RT, Hong Kong/ Chinese Border 521107