Renewed uncertainty has broken out over Beijing's visa policy, with travellers saying Shenzhen visas are still being issued at the border.
Under visa restrictions announced last month, visitors to Shenzhen are supposed to obtain one beforehand.
But expatriates in Hong Kong say they have recently been given five-day Shenzhen visas at the crossing, despite an announcement they would not be available.
A posting on asiaxpat.com by a temporary resident from Australia was typical of what expats said they had encountered.
The man wrote that he had received a five-day visa last Saturday at the Lo Wu crossing for HK$150 - the price charged before the April 1 changes. The process took five minutes, he wrote.
A Hong Kong identity card holder who went to Lo Wu the weekend before that wrote that his party had managed to get five-day visas after a three-hour wait.
A Hong Kong travel agent said customers had reported that visas were being issued at the border to foreigners with Hong Kong identity cards.