Glitter, who is travelling under his real name Paul Gadd, boarded a Thai Airways flight from Thailand to the city on Wednesday afternoon.

The TG 602 flight arrived in the Chinese territory at 11pm local time (1600 BST).

Glitter had spent more than 20 hours in the transit lounge at Bangkok airport following his release from a Vietnamese prison On Tuesday.

He flew from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok on Tuesday night and was due to board a connecting flight to Heathrow but refused.

He was refused entry into Thailand and immigration officials said that Glitter would be taken to a detention centre if he continued to refuse to leave the country.

Lieutenant General Chatchawal Suksomchit, the chief of Thailand's immigration police, said Glitter was denied entry because under Thai immigration laws those convicted of child sex abuse in a foreign country could be barred.

Thai Airways and Thai Police later confirmed that he had boarded a flight to Hong Kong.

Glitter has served two years and nine months of a three year sentence for abusing two girls aged 10 and 11 in Vietnam.