How to get to Guangzhou from Hong Kong. By train, by bus, by car. 24/7

Hong Kong Airport is one of the biggest asian airport and a lot of people who wants to visit China (especially Guangzhou) come to Hong Kong first. Since we came to China we have tfo leave the country every 3 month because of visa’s rules, so we’ve made GZ — HK trip many times.

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In this article, I will tell how to get to Guangzhou from Hong Kong.

First of all, I’d like to tell you that you can get to Guangzhou at any time of the day.

There are several options on how to get to Guangzhou from Hong Kong:

by plane
by bus
by train
by ferry/boat
via Shengzhen

By plane

Easy as pie. You just need to buy a direct ticket from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. A plane ticket price is around 800 – 1500 yuan (RMB) depends on discounts, time, etc. ~ $200 – $250.

By direct bus (coach bus)

You can buy tickets in one of the two booking terminals here: link.

Ticket sale offices are very easy to find:

How to get to Guangzhou from Hong Kong — Ticket sale office. Hong Kong. Airport

There are several companies which provide this route.

Go Go Bus
Departure time: 07:35 / 08:05 / 08:35 / 10:45 / 12:45 / 13:45 / 14:45 / 15:45 / 16:45 / 17:45 / 18:45 / 19:25 / 20:45 / 22:45
Arrival points: China Hotel, Guangzhou Hotel, Rosedale Hotel Guangzhou, Garden Hotel
More information here: link.

Through Lok Ma Chau/Huanggang
Bus’s color: pink-yellow-white.
Ticket price for adult: 220HK$, for people who older than 65 and child from 2 to 12 years old – 170HK$

Eternal East Cross-Border Coach
Bus’s color — green

China Travel Tours Transportation (CTS)
Departure time: 07:05 / 08:05 / 09:05 / 10:05 / 11:05 / 11:55 / #12:30 / 12:55 / 13:55 / #14:30 / 14:55 / 15:30 / 15:55 / #16:30 / 16:55 / 17:55 / 18:55 / 19:30 / 20:05 / 21:05 / 22:05
Arrival points: Jinan University(Tian He), China Hotel, Hotel Landmak Canton, Garden Hotel, Dong Shan Hotel
Bus’s color: white

Ticket (coach bus) from Hong Kong airport to Guangzhou

Attention! If you travel with this company, you have to go through the border control on your own. It means the bus will stop near the border, all the passengers should leave the bus with their luggage and go through passport control (when leaving Hong Kong). After all the formalities are done, you will come back to the bus. The bus will drive for 2-3 minutes and then you have to get off the bus again to go through the China border control. After this is done you will continue your journey.

Another option is to choose a company, which provides mini-van trips (ask the cashier). In this case, you don’t need to get off the vehicle and carry your heavy luggage to go through the border control. You will be staying in the van and from time to time just show your face to the border guard. In the same van, you will be given the border-crossing application forms to fill.

There is no price difference between those 2 options, but I think the latter one is more comfortable.

Important! Always have your ticket with you, because there are a lot of busses and it’s quite easy to lose which one is yours. Show your ticket to the driver to make sure that this is your route, before getting in the bus.

One more thing: check your destination point in advance if it is close to one of the bus stops. We didn’t know that the bus could stop in our district and found out about it accidentally. We were lucky, because otherwise we would have to get a taxi or a metro and spend one more hour getting to our apartment.

By train

There is no direct train from Hong Kong airport to Guangzhou. You have to get to the city center. You can get there by bus A21 (~ 1 hour) or take Airport Express, which is faster (~ 20 min). You will get to Kowloon station (not Kowloon West or Kowloon Tong).

Then from Kowloon station you can take direct train to Guangzhou.

Time: 2 hours by train from HK to GZ; 30-40 minutes — border crossing HK-China and China-HK; Total time ~ 3 hours.
Price: 190 HKD (150 RMB or $25) for a train ticket per person.

This is, probably, one of the most expensive ways, but also comfortable. You’ll leave Kowloon and arrive to East Railway Station (orange line of Guangzhou Metro — Line 3) – Guangzhou metro map, from where you can get to any part of the city.

By ferry

We didn’t try this way, but I know there is only one ferry, which leaves at 11:15 every Tuesday and Saturday. Sailing time is approx. 60 mins.

Price: RMB 310 / HKD 356 / 50 USD for an adult and RMB 235 / HKD 270 / 30 USD for a child (2 -12 yrs old)

You can find more information here: link.

Through Shenzhen

The border crossing terminal of Hong Kong-China (Shenzhen) is located at Lok Ma Chau station (terminal station of the blue subway line).

You need to take the subway to get to Lok Ma Chau. See the map for more details:

Hong Kong Metro is open until 12:20 am. More information about the metro can be found on the official website.

The price for the trip from Hung Hom station to Lok Ma Chau will be 37 HK$.

After crossing the border and arriving in Shenzhen, you can get to Guangzhou by high-speed train or by bus. Let me tell you more about both of these options.

From Shenzhen to Guangzhou by train

Time: the train from Shenzhen to Guangzhou goes about 1h 30m.
Price: 79 RMB (economy) or 99 RMB (business) — ~ 11 dollars per person for an economy and 14 dollars for business class.

After 1.5 hours you will be in Guangzhou at the East Railway Station, the orange metro line (Line 3).

Important! Taxi drivers in this area can cheat you very easily, so keep in mind that a taxi for the distance of 7-10 kilometres does not cost 100 yuan. It will most likely cost you 20-30. So it is better to use official taxi stops and always make sure that the taxi driver has a counter(!).

From Shenzhen to Guangzhou by bus

Time: 3 hours.
Price: 70 RMB per person ($10).

This method is even cheaper than the previous one and it is suitable for you in case you suddenly missed the last train. It happened with us once.

We arrived to Shenzhen, crossed the border, but the last train left at 22.00 or even earlier. As a result, we were in an unknown city, the ticket offices were closed…

We started to look for different options and we found out that we can get to Guangzhou by bus. Honestly, the procedure is not very pleasant, because it is twice longer. The high-speed train from Shenzhen goes at a speed of 150 km/h, but the bus — 80-90 km/h.

I think that’s all for now. We hope that our tips will help you to reach your destination with maximum comfort and with the lowest price. We have already learned first hand about how important it is to get a little comfort after exhausting flights.

Good luck!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask in comments.