Shenzhen: Special Economic Zone Touris Visa vs. regular China Visa

[susey]

Hey,

I plan to go to Shenzhen soon and heard about that Special Economic Zone Tourist Visa I can get at the border. No problem so far.

As I got a regular China Visa and still one entry left I wanted to ask if I can tell them at the border not to use my China Visa but the Specal Economic Zone Visa as I want to use my regular Visa for trip to Guangzhou.

Anybody did that before - going to Shenzhen with a China Visa but didn't use it but the Specal Economic Zone Visa instead?

[vmlinuz]

I certainly don't know the answer... but I'd make an educated guess that it wouldn't work - that they wouldn't issue you with a SEZ visa while you still have an available China visa. I just don't see the Chinese authorities issuing a spare visa just for your convenience...

[penguinsix]

I had a friend who said he did that. He was on a Swiss passport and got a SZ visa at Lo Wu even though (he claimed) he still had one entry left on his regular visa.

However, I didn't actually witness him go through that so I can't say with certainty. You also know that SZ visas are NOT available to all passport holders, just those from certain countries.

[susey]

It works for German passport holders.

But true... don't know about the spare visa - and don't wanna try and then lose my last entry. Maybe I just go to Guangzhou first and afterwards to Shenzhen but then I only have one weekend left because will go back to Germany end of August