Originally Posted by
Steve M
I thought I read in several places that the 5-day visa was suspended only for US passport holders because of diplomatic reasons, but of course this could be wrong.
As for your experience, I have a question: the last time I went through the checkpoint and got a 5-day visa was in 2002. That time and the prior time, the visa office was upstairs, such that as you were walking from the border to the immigration checkpoint, you had to do a U-turn and walk up a flight of stairs or take an escalator to the next level and go inside the office up there. If that's the case, how did you notice that the office was closed?
Sorry for the delayed reply, and also for confusing you.
I was not referring to the Lo Wu border crossing. I remember the office you are referring to. I do not know if it is still there.
What I was talking about is when you drive out of Shenzhen, about 20 minutes (depending on traffic) from the border, there was a check point. You had to stop and show passports (coming in or going out). Sometimes you just flashed it, and sometimes they really looked at everyone's passports. This was the border of where the Shenzhen visa was good for. The check point is still there, but not manned.