Matters needing attention for mainland tourists visiting Hong Kong paul tse If you are visiting Hong Kong for the first time, the first thing to do before departure is to confirm: 1, whether your documents have expired; 2. Are you holding a free travel visa or a group travel visa? If you are holding a group tourist visa, you must follow the tour guide before customs clearance, and the tour guide will arrange customs clearance in a unified way; If you have a visa-free, it will be much easier for you. Just go through the customs yourself. The second thing: exchange Hong Kong dollars 1. Generally, it's best to exchange Hong Kong dollars before customs clearance, because after you arrive in Hong Kong, there may be some exchange rate losses. For example, 87 yuan RMB is needed to exchange 100 Hong Kong dollars in the Mainland, and 90 yuan RMB may be needed to exchange 100 Hong Kong dollars in Hong Kong. If you don't exchange Hong Kong dollars in the mainland, what will happen immediately will worry you: Hong Kong transit customs are different from Macao, and the customs on both sides of Macao are connected, that is, you will go to Macao customs immediately after passing the mainland customs. Before crossing Hong Kong, you have to go through the land and sea customs, take the "Ba Huang" (haha, many people study in Wang Ba) for a few minutes before you get to Hong Kong customs, and you have to change trains on the way. In the process, you need to pay 7 yuan dollars. If you don't have Hong Kong dollars, sorry, you have to pay 10 RMB! ! I paid more than 4 yuan! Of course, for those rich compatriots who want to give Hong Kong people a fright, this article can be ignored. 2. When changing Hong Kong dollars, try to get as much change as possible, because in Hong Kong, it is generally enough to use Hong Kong dollars by bus. Buses in Hongkong are more troublesome than those in Chinese mainland. Generally, they are either two yuan, or 1 yuan, or 3 yuan, which are all integers. Many buses in Hong Kong's tourism development path are 2.5 yuan, 3.5 yuan and even 3.4 yuan, which seems inhuman, but from another perspective, it can also be considered as a manifestation of fairness; Large denominations can be paid by credit card, and there is no handling fee for swiping the card, and you can also take advantage of the exchange rate. As for the precautions for using credit cards, they will be mentioned in detail later. The third thing: Travel and Shopping Hong Kong is a world-famous shopping paradise. Many people go to Hong Kong mainly for shopping. I once saw a mainland female tourist make a scene because the hotel address was too remote: I shop here, you take me here to live, and where do I shop at night! ! There is also a previously reported wireless report that a rich second-generation mainland woman got drunk and made trouble in Hong Kong, boasting about how she made a lot of money shopping in Hong Kong. It can be seen that a considerable number of tourists travel to Hong Kong for shopping, but there are often various traps in this shopping paradise, which need our attention; 1. Regarding duty-free shops, duty-free shops are synonymous with cheapness in the eyes of most mainland tourists; However, "smart" Hong Kong people also saw this, so they opened many "duty-free shops" to shop for mainland tourists. On the tour bus, Hong Kong tour guides enthusiastically introduce duty-free shops to you, tell you how cheap it is to use duty-free, and occasionally recommend one or two products to you, such as a razor made in Germany that can be washed without changing for ten years. I will also tell you what festivals the Hong Kong government will celebrate or encourage tourism, and buy two American ginseng from 500 yuan (this gift has several uses: 1, so that you can feel this. 2. In order to make you spend more money to make up 500 yuan dollars; In order to let him know how many things you bought, in case the bosses of those "duty-free summer travel knowledge stores" hid some when they gave him kickbacks, hehe, if you cheat too much, you are afraid that others will cheat you! )。 There are many such so-called duty-free shops. Different guides will take you to different places. Let's talk about a "Tsim Dong (International) Duty Free Shop". Anyone with a discerning eye will know at a glance that this so-called international duty-free shop has no local customers. It's all mainland tour groups that drive people to this hell (not that I wronged them, they did build an "international" duty-free shop in the basement). On both sides of the store door are shops of "international famous watches" that we have never heard of. Occasionally, I will pull some tour groups down here to buy "watches"; At the door of the store, the waiter asked the tourists to line up. Every time I go in, everyone puts a coded sign on this man's chest. You are forbidden not to post this sign. They say it's for theft prevention, but it's actually for dividends. After you buy something, the clerk should secretly write down your number. This number indicates which tour guide you are taking, so you can share it with him. You've put up with all this. When you enter the store, if you are an electrical appliance lover and want to buy a cheap digital product here, you will be very disappointed. The digital camera in the store is the model of five years ago, which can only be found in second-hand shops in Chinese mainland, and the product model is rarely marked. The digital camera uses a big brand that says "the fifth generation digital camera" and "the sixth generation digital camera". For example, a Sony 30G hard disk camera, labeled as "6th Generation Digital Camera", costs HK$ 4,300. But we know that this camera sold for 3200 yuan in Chinese mainland four years ago, and now you can only buy it in Dashatou second-hand electrical appliance market. There are also many exhibition halls in this duty-free shop to show visitors one of their Rhine brand high-definition cameras. If you don't know about household appliances, you can't stop Google from searching for "Rhine" cameras. Haha, apart from the information that many mainland tourists have been cheated, there is no so-called "German Rhine" for travel safety precautions. These so-called German Rheinland are toy-grade things made by Shenzhen Shanzhai Factory. Generally, the buyers of this kind of household appliances are tourists from Chinese mainland. Those who speak Mandarin receive the most "special courtesy" there, and the shop assistants are more enthusiastic, because they are the legendary "water fish" (credulous word in Cantonese and "Kai Zi" in Mandarin). I don't have any discrimination here, but because of geographical differences, mainland tourists know much less information than tourists in coastal areas, so they are easily fooled. Moreover, because it is difficult and expensive for Chinese mainland to apply for Hong Kong and Macao passes, most of them are rich people who can travel to Hong Kong. These people have become "water fish" in the eyes of some Hong Kong people. So, buy electrical appliances, or go to an old brand like Broadway. The price is similar to that in mainland China, but at least you won't buy "Rhine HD camera"! 2. Regarding the purchase of gold jewelry, the price of gold in Hong Kong is higher than that in Chinese mainland, so many tourists, especially female tourists (MM), need these! ) I hope to "kill" in Hong Kong and I can't wait to move the whole gold shop home! Well, smart Hong Kong people will see this, and the tour guide will take you to Xie Jewelry Shopping, and he will instill some knowledge into you in the car. For example, Li Ka-shing bought Xie's jewelry, and he cared more about Feng Shui, so he developed a pendant called "Luck". Choosing his own pendant will bring you good luck! ! Then you can also find that there is also a "lucky turn" hanging around his neck; Also, gold is out of date now, and tricolor gold is popular now. Well, when we get to the park, let's not say whether Xie's gold shop is in a remote place or in the basement. There are no Hong Kong guests in it, but all mainland tourists, that is to say, three-color gold and a small gold chain cost more than 4,000 yuan. Look carefully, it is 18k kGold. There are also "lucky" 18k gold with poor workmanship, and the favorite tourist destination is 3400 yuan! If you think about it carefully, you will find: 1, there is only one gold shop in this remote place (or basement), so you have no room for comparison. They also told you about the so-called cheap. 2. If it's really so cheap, why isn't there anyone from Hong Kong to buy it? Haha, if you want to buy gold, go to a famous brand shop on the street! 3. About going to a shopping paradise like Hong Kong with a credit card, shopping is inevitable, ranging from mobile phones and laptops to shower gel and perfume! Besides being unsafe, it is illegal to carry a large amount of Hong Kong dollars over a certain amount. Fortunately, we have credit cards, UnionPay in our pockets, or VISA and MASTER! Signs welcoming the use of UnionPay cards and RMB are posted everywhere in Hong Kong, which shows how much Hong Kong people "value" mainlanders. Generally speaking, when shopping in Hong Kong reaches HK$ 100, you can swipe your card, but when swiping your card, you should pay attention to reminding merchants to take the "UnionPay" route, so that UnionPay will directly convert it into RMB according to the exchange rate at that time, put it in your bill and return it to the mainland. For example, what you bought 100 HK dollars, and the amount recorded on the bill is 87 yuan RMB. If you don't declare to take the "UnionPay" route, they may take the route of the payment institution on your card, such as VISA or MASTER. In this way, you will have to pay an extra 2% handling fee to VISA, and you will have to purchase foreign exchange to repay (US dollars) when you return to the mainland, and you may have to pay more RMB risks caused by exchange rate changes. So, if you can, you must take the "UnionPay" line! Feel the pride of China people. Fourth, understand the relevant laws on public places in Hong Kong.