David Missal, of the Berlin-based advocacy group Tibet Initiative, posted on social media platform X Sunday that he was grilled for hours by officials before being denied entry.
"After 13 sleepless hours under immigration examination... I was told that I could not enter the city and was eventually allowed to take a plane to Vietnam," Missal, the group's vice executive director, wrote.
"I was able to travel to China within the visa-free policy, but not to (Hong Kong)," Missal said, adding that his luggage was aso searched.
China last year granted visa-free entry to Germans and a few other European passport holders, allowing them to transit through the mainland for up to 15 days.
Earlier this year, international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said one of its representatives was stopped and questioned when she tried to enter Hong Kong, before being deported.
Missal told AFP some colleagues -- including him -- had their visa applications to mainland China rejected in the past, but that he had studied in Hong Kong in 2018 and 2019.
He added that his trip -- initially planned for China, then Hong Kong and Vietnam -- was "not work-related" as he was on vacation.
Hong Kong's immigration department has not yet responded to a request for comment.
The former British colony was once considered one of the freest territories within China.
After massive and at times violent democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019, Beijing imposed a sweeping security law to quash dissent.
Earlier this year, Hong Kong authorities enacted a second law to punish more security crimes -- drawing condemnation from Western nations including the United States about the curbing of freedoms in the city.
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