Day travel to Shenzhen from Hong Kong

In order to make a day or somewhat longer trip to Shenzhen from Hong Kong, you are not allowed to take a high speed train. There are three designated border crossings where you can obtain a Shenzhen 5 days visa on arrival and none of them supports taking a high speed train. There are two overland border crossings - Lo Wu (Luohu) and Huanggang and one sea border crossing - Shekou in Shenzhen. The latter is the best because the queues are short and you do not lose your time waiting for a visa. The best thing is to take the first (morning) ferry from Hong Kong to Shekou in Shenzhen and to apply for a visa on arrival upon arrival there. You should just have in mind that the price of this visa for Canadian citizens is 541 CNY based on reciprocity.

After your stay in Shenzhen, you can return back to Hong Kong by taking any border crossing and also by taking any mean of transport, high speed train included.