144 Hr Visa Free?

You must hold a visa when traveling on the HSR. If you don't want to get a visa, then you need to be traveling on the Guangzhou-Kowloon through train.

Well, you can relay on visa free transit option, but you will have to make some changes to your itinerary:

- You cannot depart within 24 hours from Guangzhou to Hong Kong using any other mean of transport beside the plane. Simply speaking, you have to wait at least 25 hours before you are allowed to take train or ferry. Only like this you can become eligible for 144 hours visa free transit. If you insist on departing from Guangzhou as soon as possible, then you will rely on plane and this will be 24 hours visa free transit. The rule of 24 hours visa free transit for Shenzhen and Guangzhou does not allows transfers by any other mean of transport to Hong Kong and Macau beside the plane.

- You are not allowed to take high speed train, but so called Guangzhou–Kowloon through train that departs from Guangzhou East railway station and after a bit less than 2 hours reaches Hung Hom railway station in Hong Kong. You can book your ticket at Guangdong Line Schedule - MTR Intercity Through Train website. Keep in mind that you will receive an e-confirmation and after you arrive in Guangzhou you will have to convert that e-confirmation in real paper ticket at the lobby of Grand Palace hotel in Guangzhou. You will have to take exactly that train that you have bought your tickets for!

- Your second part of itinerary, i.e. Hong Kong - Guangzhou - Thailand is fine, but if your intention is not to stay longer than 24 hours, then it will be again 24 hours visa free transit.

So, these are the rules and you will decide what will you choose and how will you plan your entire itinerary.

So Rachel, just one correction... As explained by John Doe on the above post dedicated to Simon from Germany, I can tell you that you can use train or ferry to reach Hong Kong from Guangzhou even when you are traveling on 24 hours visa free transit. So, you can basically take a metro from the airport to Guangzhou East railway station immediately and take Guangzhou–Kowloon through train to Hong Kong without waiting for 24 hours to elapse. All the remaining details are correct.

Thank you!

Thanks very much!