My travels are coming to an end again. Today I wanted to go shopping in Shenzhen (as I think HK has more posh stores, and that's not really my cup of tea). At 1030 I went down to the subway and at 1230 I had passed the borders on the Shenzhen side. Most EU-countries get (free) visa on arrival to HK, so no problem returning. To Shenzhen, you can get a visa on arrival (ca 30min, costs 168 RMB for most EU), but, and this is crucial: you must have the fee in RMB, HKD are not accepted. Then there's just a short subway trip to central S and all the shopping and sightseeing.
I thought that I should start in the electronics neighborhoods as they close at 1730. Bought some stuff, did the Starbucks. Sat down outside one of the malls, a beggar came up to me and I repeated bo (no) probably 20 times but he had such a nice smile so I was going to give him money anyway, just wanted to wait until he stopped nagging. This whole thing amused two women a couple of meters away quite a lot.