A British friend of mine has managed to somehow get access to the e-Channel lanes on the mainland China side as well as the HK side of the border. I'm pretty sure he's not a dual citizen (he's neither ethnic Chinese and nor was he born in HK), and he's mentioned having problems when trying to subsequently exit China from somewhere that doesn't have the e-Channel lanes.

I'll have to ask him about how he's managed to pull this off the next time I talk with him.

You do not need to be ethnic Chinese nor born in HK to qualify for e-Channel. It is for frequent visitors to HK via so many entries in the last x number of months or by being FF on a list of airlines.

That's for the HK e-Channel; I'm referring to the one on the mainland side of the border (there are also lanes at PEK T3 and PVG).

There are a few references to this in a thread on GeoExpat, but there's only limited info: http://hongkong.geoexpat.com/forum/5...d64371-17.html

Right. Many of us have HK e-Channel access, but this doesn't help out with my issue at hand (Chinese passport stamps).

Any info with respect to the China e-Channel would be greatly appreciated (I'm going to be in and out of HK several times next week).

Ethnic Chinese...Han?

I think Ethnic Chinese have been broadended a bit more.

http://pastmist.files.wordpress.com/...yghur_girl.jpg

Since you can deal with the language CTS in HK is a good place to ask:
(852) 2315 7171
OR
[email protected]

With the amount of business people doing the crossing they should know how to "help" you.

That's really not a very nice tone to take with someone who offered a suggestion to solve your problem.

It's all good because we're friends. But, applying for new passports every year or three isn't a very good solution.

Unfortunately there is no solution to the Chinese side
 

Hi,

Just reading the thread here - I've lived in China for 10+ years, mainly on a resident permit. I've got the e-channel on the Hong Kong side, which is great. However there is no way for a foreigner, even with a resident permit or a permanent resident card, to get e-channel access for the China side.

I hope that will change one day and I will be the first person on line to apply for it once it's available.

In talking with people I know in the Shenzhen government, there is no plan on the table at all to give foreigners access to e-channel, but if there was, it would probably start with the permanent resident card holders.

Hope that helps clarify the situation.

Regards,
Marshall

Moondog is a good guy...China should give him one of the green cards..he deserves one.

Thanks for your post, Marshall. I look forward to catching up with you in Shenzhen next week.

Very off topic, I'd also like to take this opportunity to introduce the community to Willy's Crab Shack (I wear the bright red shirt on occasion, which is embarrassing for me, but is great outdoor advertising) and Jordan's in Shekou.

Asked my friend for clarification on this tonight and it turns out he is in fact a naturalised Chinese (HK) citizen as of three years ago and thus has a Home Return Permit, which is needed for use of the mainland e-Channel gates. Evidently the whole thing is a matter of filling in a few forms once you've held HK residency for 7 years. Apparently, it wasn't taxes or passport stamps, but a desire to visit Tibet without minders that motivated him to pull the trigger... :confused:

Apologies if I got anyone's hopes up.

Just curious if you found a solution to this problem yet?
I too have HK E Channel but not the China E-Channel which bothers me cause the customs efficiency in Shenzhen was slow as heck. (Train station, Lok Ma Chau)

I crossed into Shenzhen 3 times in 4 days , and the stamps are such a waste of space.
Plus they don't like stamping on top of the HK customs stamps so they skip a few pages on purpose........

I met an Australian guy last week who claimed that his APEC Travel Card not only got him China e-Channel access, but also spared him from passport stamps. I'm a bit skeptical about the latter claim because the Chinese seem to be keen on having printed evidence of entries/exits, but I'm also in no position to dismiss his account.

Since the US version of APEC apparently does not serve as a visa substitute, the above scenario isn't helpful for Americans any way.

Today, I finally got around to adding new pages to my passport in HK. The process was far more annoying than it was the last time I did the same drill in Shanghai (need to make an appointment using their online scheduling system... mornings only, and everything after 9a fills up quickly; have to go through multi-phase security ritual; repeat the same in the afternoon). This seems to be one area in which the US has outdone China in terms of useless bureaucracy (i.e. making a seemingly simple task needlessly complicated).

The good news is that they give out 2 sets of inserts for the same $82. Interestingly, a new passport, which can also be 48 pages only costs $70, but I wasn't about to go that route because apart from the aforementioned annoyance of carrying 2 passports, I'm guessing that I would need to re-enroll in HK eChannel with the new passport.

Apologies for drifting off topic, but I'm good for another couple of years at least, and the girl who stamped me this evening kindly adhered to my request to put the entry stamp as close to the top left corner of my new page "A" as humanly possible. ^

I do have a HK issued APEC Business Travel Card that substitutes a visa, but I do get stamps every time and if e-channel access was possible (which I doubt, because the APEC card has no chip) I am longing to know how. On the other hand, the diplomats' channel that the APEC card entitles me to is probably still faster than the e-channel.