Border Crossing: Dongxing (China) to Mong Cai (Vietnam) with a Malaysian Passport.

These last few days in China was more routine than anything else. Travel from one town to another, take a walk around exploring and photos food and sleep. Nothing extra ordinary yet it was a travel without much hiccups.

I dunnu if i prefer these types of travel sometimes and I feel a bit guilty for I tend to travel too fast moving on as it can get a bit boring without ave spectacular sites and culture to visit. Non touristy places does not make you exhausted running to see things after things but at the same time makes you exhausted, as due of boredom you just start jump hopping cities to cities faster.

My contemplation of staying in Dongxing for the night also went out the window that way. I was bored and the idea of hopping over the border to Vietnam earlier to have a change of pace was begining to apeal more and more although at the back of my mind I knew that once I cross the border it wont be relaxing anymore as it was a new playing field that I would have to learn again and get acustom to.

Walking Around Dongxing

Walking Around Dongxing

Walking Around Dongxing

Thou I have been to vietnam before, I have yet to do it alone so I knew this was still going to be a slightly new adventure.

The bus from Beihai reach Dongxing after 4 hours. At 4pm in Beihai I decided to cross the border immediatly instead of spending the night. A 2km walk to the border and accross we go. I knew there was a 1 hour difference so even if I crossed by 5pm ... it would be 4pm in Vietnam hence I would cross it and take my chances.

Border Crossing from Dongxing to Mong Cai

The border crossing point was fairly easy to find with all the directional signpost. Google map however was failing me as the GPS seams to run far far away. Luckily the China AMAP gps was still on point.

Lots of Information Signpost in Dongxing

Dongxing Border Crossing Point Entry

Just at the entrance for China Border exit there was lots of people hanging around asking if one needed to change money and from my guess, they were also offering service to apply permit to exit China or enter Vietnam. 

I would not know really as Malaysian dont require anything of that sort so I just change some CNY to VND just so I am not cashless once over. Still as expected of a border town with China, everything in Mong Cai could still be paid in CNY thou the change might come back in VND with poor exchange rate.

To be honest there is not much to write about this border crossing espescially with a Malaysian Passport. No permits required, no visa ... just stamp out of China then stamp into Vietnam. 

Cleared China Dongxing Exit Imigration & Customs 

Walk Across the Bridge from Dongxing (China) to Mong Cai (Vietnam)

The only question I got asked was at the China side which was why I was going to Mong Cai which I replied as holiday. They further asked if I would go home to Malaysia from Vietnam and I just said maybe. My only suppicion is that if I tried to do a U-turn to extend Visa for China that would be a red flag to them but as I was genuinly going to Vietnam to travel, so I guess we would never know.

Walk Over to Mong Cai -Vietnam Immigration & Customs 

Over at the Vietnam side of the border, for some reason was more expensive than China. Hotels was nearly double the price, food was the same as well and I could not imagine the other items. One thing I spotted thou was the Casinos. There were huge large casinos in Mong Cai ... a few of them in fact but I only entered one. Casino were purely for forginers and no Vietnamese could enter.

The Casino was fully Mandarin friendly and zero English such that I had no idea how to read the gameplay. I reconized a few of them but it was still dounting to play without understanding the rules. Gambling money was in CNY, not USD or VND but CNY. 

Hong Van Grand Hotel Casino

Hong Van Grand Hotel Casino

I somehow can understand the bad exchange rate now from CNY to Dong and vice versa in Mong Cai. It was a Border Town where Chinese Nationals comes to splurge hence making everything more expensive than Dongxing which seams very docile when I was there briefly.

Traveled on: Dec 2023