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Can one enter Shenzhen from Hong Kong with a Special Economic Zone visa despite having a non-fully utilized, still valid Chinese L (tourist) visa? If it is possible, will the Chinese L (tourist) visa be voided?

Motivation: for citizens of many countries, Chinese L (tourist) visa are limited to one or two entries, and typically one entry allows a stay of up to 30. Using a Special Economic Zone visa would allow to avoid exhausting the number of permitted entries when just visiting a Chinese Special Economic Zone for a few days.

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    Great question - my brief search using Chinese keywords does not yield any meaningful result from official sources. I suspect there are guidelines not in the public domain (and hopefully people can find it), as surely you are not the first one to try and do so.
    – B.Liu
    Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 7:26
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    Obviously you an always use the tourist visa that you already have. If they give you an SEZ visa, the tourist visa will likely remain valid; and you could ask the officials at the border checkpoint to confirm that it will. On the other hand they may not give you an SEZ visa at all and refuse entry; either because it's impossible, or to save themselves trouble, or for whatever other reason. The rules for those visa seem to change quite often, so I'm not sure if you're going to get hard and fast rules on this from an official source.
    – averell
    Commented Nov 18, 2018 at 21:05

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I presume that you are currently in Hong-Kong. I would advise you to visit the Chinese Embassy and ask you question there. That is the only source you can trust for these kind of matters since they are an extension of the Chinese government that is owner of both the visas. The Embassy can also give you a writing which would explain the situation to the customs if this is deemed to be necessary.

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As with any Mainland China visa you can only ever have one such visa in effect at any time, whatever visa you currently have, for example a L tourist visa would be invalidated if you then apply for and receive any other type of visa for mainland China rendering this question a moot question.

I did not find any official sources on the web but the written rules available at the Shanghai Foreigner Entry and Exit Department confirms this.

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