China has finally allowed tourist visa starting early March 2023 since the pandemic. After more than a year being in Hong Kong, we could now take the opportunity to go to Shenzhen since it's the nearest city in China. Besides, Shenzhen allows visa on arrival (VOA) so you don't need to plan ahead. We planned this quite last minute so the VOA was just perfect. Otherwise, we would need to apply for a Chinese visa in the embassy beforehand.
We took the MTR to Lo Wu station and after exiting HK immigration, we needed to apply for the VOA. It was quite a simple process.
You need to take a picture there and then, fill in the application form, take a number and wait for your turn. It was 168RMB per pax. The waiting time could be quite long depending how many tourists are doing the VOA at the same time. Ours took 1 1/2 hours. After that, we proceeded to China immigration and finally stepped foot into Shenzhen!
We first took the Metro to Galaxy Coco Park (Shopping Park station on Line 1) and it's a mall with many restaurants. We were hungry after all the travelling and waiting time and it was just nice that it was indoors because it started raining outside.
We found a random Biang Biang noodles shop and ordered our lunch.
Chinese pancakes as starters.
Biang Biang noodles.
Thick, long, springy spicy noodles. Yums!
After that, the hubs needed his coffee fix so we passed by a bakery which pastries looked really good so we had our tea time there hehe
Flat white.
Chocolate cake with pistachio in the middle. So yummy.
Lemon croissant.
All these for only 89RMB. My gosh, compare to HK, these were super affordable. And the portion size were huge and there's no minimum spending and time limit unlike HK (iykyk).
Then of course, we had to get Hey Tea because it's famous here.
Bubble milk tea with cheese. It's their top drink.
Then, we took the Metro again and stopped at Laojie station. This is THE place for shopping. It's a shopping haven. It seems to me like Platinum Mall.
There were many mani/pedi shops, clothes to shop, massage parlours and just so many malls selling wholesale fashion. I guess I don't have to go to Bangkok anymore and just need to take a train's ride to Shenzhen for some cheap shopping and girlie time.
We stopped by a restaurant for hotpot. Apparently, coconut chicken hotpot is famous here and I now know why. It was so refreshingly good. They poured two huge coconut water in it and we finished the entire broth LOL It's a must try when you're in Shenzhen. It was super affordable as well. We were actually very surprised at how cheap the prices were especially after coming from HK.
Now, if you're a foodie, THIS Dongmen Pedestrial Street is the place to be. The night food market was buzzing with food vendors selling all kinds of street food. We were absolutely delighted to be there seeing so much food. And although we ate so much, we still had space for supper HAHA
Cannot leave China without eating Tanghulu. Loved the juicy orange tanghulu. Sweet on the outside but sourishly juicy on the inside. Only 5RMB for one stick.
Then we saw some nitrogen snacks which Nicholas Tse and other celebrities tried haha...when you bite into eat, there's a lot of smoke that comes out. It was just for fun LOL
Lemon tart from Bao's Pastry. Only 8RMB for 2!
Egg pancakes. Spicy with crunchy cucumber and ham inside. Yums!
Baked skewers. There were a lot of shops selling skewers there so choose however many you want hehe
Mochi! 4 for only 10RMB. So many flavours and so chewy and yummy.
Refreshingly good lychee drink.
Gahh, we ate sooo much in Shenzhen! We truly enjoyed our day trip there. There's so much shopping to do and so much food to eat. My only advise is get your WeChat pay ready. We already saved our credit card into WeChat but didn't do the verification so we were unable to use and it was quite a hard time because not many shops take credit card and cash are also very scarcely used in China. Verification for WeChat takes 3 working days so be prepared to do everything in advance before coming to China. E-wallet and WeChat QR code scanning is everywhere in China as they are so advanced so bring a powerbank as well in case you need it.
Other than that, enjoy all the cheap food and shopping!!
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