A FOREWORD FROM WILL
This guest post is from literary extraordinaire and friend Mary Huang. This story developed when I met up with Mary and a few other past co-workers in Tokyo as part of my food tour. In a bind, she needed to get to Shanghai while she was in Tokyo but without a China Visa what could she do? I’ll share the rest of the story at the bottom but first I’ll hand it over to Mary who will tell you a bit more about how you can go to China without a visa.
If you’ve ever toyed with the idea with travelling to China, you’ll know that the People’s Republic does not kid around when it comes to their visas. Those who frequent the home of the Great Wall will tell you that you should always apply for an entry visa at least 3 weeks prior to your departure date. The whole process involves booking an appointment at your nearest Chinese Visa Center, filling out online forms that includes bringing along visa photos with very specific dimensions, and waiting around 5 business days where you’ll then need to go back to the visa centre to pick up your passport with the newly minted visa. There are expedited/rush processing requests but even then, expect a 2 business day turnaround and extra fees.
In recent years, you can now apply for multiple entry visas for those of you who anticipate more than 1 trip in the lifespan of your passport (just costs a little extra $$) which has made the process a little less painful but what’s better is there’s now a new and improved 144-hour In-Transit Visa which travellers can apply for at the airport.
So how do you qualify for this mysterious visa?
How the 144-Hour In-Transit Visa works
Here’s are the details that you need to know. What’s funny is that there isn’t a good official website from the PRC that goes through all the details. The next best thing is what Travel China Guide has put together.
First off, exactly how many days is 144 hours? It’s 6 days.
The primary requirement
The key is that you must be leaving to a different country from which you arrived. (ie. USA to China to Canada is OK. But Canada to China to Canada is not).
The idea is you’re “in-transit” and just passing through China. This is probably best explained through examples.
- In my case, I started in Tokyo -> transit through Shanghai -> onwards to Toronto
- More typical routes look like this: Toronto -> Beijing -> Bangkok
- This also works on the return flight: Hong Kong -> Shanghai -> Los Angeles
Note that Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan count as different countries from the PRC so Hong Kong to China to Canada is fine.Tor
What doesn’t work is when there are multiple hops (in different zones) involved:
- Toronto -> Shanghai -> Xi’an -> Seoul
- London -> Beijing -> Shanghai -> New York
Yes Beijing and Shanghai are eligible cities to apply for the visa but you can’t fly to separate parts of the countries that are considered to be different zones (more on that below).
What is interesting to note is that something like this works:
- Singapore -> Shanghai -> Hangzhou -> Malaysia (Shanghai and Hangzhou are in the same zone)
Why is that? Keep reading…
THE MAIN RULE
A -> B: one of three zones in Mainland China -> C
The 3 Zones
There are 3 defined “zones” and corresponding specific cities where you can apply for this type of visa. This means that this only works at very specific landing areas in China.
Also keep in mind that technically you can only travel within the zone of which you entered.
Zone #1: Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang
- Shanghai: All air, sea and railway ports, including Pudong Airport, Hongqiao Airport, Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal, Wusong Passenger Transport Center and all railway stations.
- Hangzhou of Zhejiang: Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport
- Nanjing of Jiangsu: Nanjing Lukou Airport
Zone #2: Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei
- Beijing: Capital International Airport, Beijing West Railway Station
- Tianjin: Binhai International Airport, Tianjin International Cruise Home Port
- Shijiazhuang of Hebei: Zhengding International Airport
- Qinghuangdao of Hebei: Qinhuangdao Port
Zone #3: Liaoning Province
- Dalian: Zhoushuizi International Airport
- Shenyang: Taoxian International Airport
Coming soon : Guangdong Province
You must have a departure flight booked within the 144 hour period and be able to show the Customs Officer your booking confirmation and departure details. The departure city must be within the zone that you landed in.
This is why my earlier example of Singapore -> Shanghai -> Hangzhou -> Malaysia works because you landed in Shanghai (Zone #1) and left within 144 hours from Zone #1 which in this case is Hangzhou.
Bending the rules
One way you could bend the zone rule is if you do your own tour on ground but to China it’ll look like you stayed in your one zone the entire time.
So you could land in Shanghai and get on a bus or train to do Xi’an and Chengdu let’s say within 6 days and fly out of Shanghai again onwards to your “final” destination.
The main question here is how much can you pack into 144 hours?
How the application process works
If you’ve made it through all the requirements, the actual application is really easy and took me through a much shorter line at customs:
- Inform the carrier (airline) when boarding
- Fill an Arrival/Departure Card when you land
- Apply for the 144-hour visa-free stay permit upon arrival at customs (it’s the one with the shortest line)
- Claim your luggage
- Leave the airport
Applying for the 144-hour visa at airport customs
When you get into the special line at customs, you present your flight itinerary (including your onward ticket out of China), your passport, and the Arrival/Departure Card. Yes this means that you must have a confirmed ticket to your next destination. You can’t book it while you’re in China.
There are a few things they’ll be concerned with and ask you about:
- Are you only in China for the maximum allowed 144 hours?
- What are you going to be doing in China?
- Where will you be staying in China?
Regarding the last point, they will actually be paying close attention to the address and contact information that you fill out on the Arrival/Departure Card.
In my case, since I was staying with my Grandmother in Shanghai, I provided the residential address and phone number. What I experienced this time is that they actually followed up with me by contacting my cell phone while in Shanghai. I also had to go to the local police office to report my presence as part of the visa.
That sounds a little scary but for regular travellers who will be staying at the hotel, what I’ve read is that they will contact the hotel to confirm your stay at the hotel. In this situation, you do not need to go to the police station.
Counting 144 hours
This isn’t as intuitive as you think. The 144 hours starts from 00:00 or midnight of the day following your arrival.
For example, if you arrive at 6AM on May 1, the clock starts running once midnight hits to start May 2. As a result, you need to make sure you have a flight that leaves China in the same zone before 23:59 on May 7. If you do the math, that’s actually 162 hours in the country.
A new Chinese government tool
The Chines government has created a new tool to check whether you’re eligible for the visa-free transit. The site is poorly designed but at least it’s simple and gets to the point. Put in what country you’re from and where you intend to land. From there it does a pretty good job at providing the transit requirements, special notes, and a good Q&A.
Does this work for business travellers?
This is another question I’ve seen asked here quite a number of times. Having gone through all the documentation, I don’t see any mention anywhere about the “Purpose of Visit”. It’s one of those things where if there are no specific rules against it, I believe you are okay.
If you want to be 100% sure, since I haven’t done it before, call the embassy in your country and find out.
What about Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan?
This seems like a tricky question at first but transit to that third country or region allows Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. As an example. You can do Canada -> Beiing -> Taiwan. This is allowed as part of the 144-hour transit visa in Shanghai.
The only caveat is that for the third country/region you’re going to, you need to make sure you can prove that you’re allowed to enter that country via a visa. As an example, an e-visa to Taiwan may not be enough.
How do you leverage the 144-hour visa?
There are many travel companies that actually now offer 6 day tours especially designed for travellers who qualify for these visas and take you to see sites specific to each zone.
So beyond using this visa in a bind to get to China like it was in my case, you can leverage the 144 hours to see the country in a quick 6 days before moving onto another country in Asia.
The rest of Mary’s story
Will –
Here’s my version of what happened. Mary’s grandfather in Shanghai became unexpectedly ill while in Tokyo and it seemed at first that it would be near impossible to just fly to China. China is one of those countries that takes a bit of planning to go to because most passport holders require a visa to enter. I remember asking around about whether China takes family emergency exceptions as a way to enter the country but everything pointed to “no”. Determined to go, all I remember hearing about was that she was going to buy a ticket that day and just go.
What I didn’t know was Mary had a brilliant albeit a little lucky plan. Mary bought a ticket from Tokyo to Toronto via Shanghai. When she landed in Shanghai and went to the transit visa area of customs, nerves were at an all time high because she had no idea if this was going to work. Custom officials went through her flight information and details of where she was going to stay. Things were looking bleak as they deliberated for an abnormally long time. What was happening behind the scenes was they were counting the hours that were in between her landing in Shanghai to her departure to Toronto. Every hour mattered.
At the end of it all, she just managed to come in at under 144 hours for them to grant the visa. Crazy!
Somehow she had pulled off the impossible. By being in Japan, she managed to unexpectedly detour to China by leveraging this visa-on-arrival.
Did this help? Do you have other unanswered question about the 144 Hour In-Transit Visa? Just drop a comment below and I’ll make sure to get back to you as soon as I can!
Mary Huang is currently a Talent Specialist with ML6 Search & Talent advisory and a rookie world traveler fueled by promises of street food and Michelin star cuisine.
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Hello, a very good article which has eased my worries.
I am a U.K. citizen flying to Shanghai and transiting through 3 days later leaving via cruise ship to Hong Kong and then ultimately to Singapore.
Everything tells me that I qualify easily enough but the idea of heading to China with that safe secure Visa already not in place fills me with some trepidation.
However it all seems ok?
Hi Iain, I know how you feel. The frustrating part about the visa is that there’s no way of pre-validation from the government so you need to trust that you won’t get rejected when you land. Based on what you’ve said here you should be okay if you’re staying in Shanghai 3 days before flying to Hong Kong. Make sure you have all of your hotel and flight documentation available to present to the special customs officers in PVG.
Thanks Will, interestingly my biggest problem at the moment is getting past the original departure airport., who seem unsure of the policy. So convincing them and being allowed on the flight in the first place is my first major hurdle. It seems an unknown policy to many who should actually know???
Ah yes it seems like not all the airlines are fully aware of the rules and I have heard the one-off story of them looking for a China visa when yo udon’t actually need it. Have you been able to reach out to your airline?
Yes, but they were very unsure and said I needed something from the Visa centre/embassy which I said was not possible as they seem reluctant to promote it and then to speak with our own immigration at the airport. We are leaving from a provisional airport so not sure they are up to date. I am armed with my iPad and a whole host of links, particularly one from the Chinese embassy which is actually a press statement outlining how the whole thing works….at this late stage I am looking back thinking I should have gone through the hassle of a full Visa but the cruise company were clear at the time. Ah well the adventure is perhaps more of an adventure than it should be. Many thanks for your help
Ah that’s frustrating because that shouldn’t be the case. It’s possible they don’t know about the rules. What if you provided them more information from the government. There’s a page here that could help: http://sh-immigration.gov.cn/listPageEn.aspx?lx=40&id=4414. And yes I do hope that this becomes a great adventure for you! I really think you’ll be okay but again if the airport is going to hold you up, you’ll have to get past that first.
I’m just thinking with all my concentration on the 144 I’m only in for 72 hours does Shanghai come within that
Yes the same rules apply with 72 hours. For cities like Shanghai, they just extended it to 144 hours.
I’m getting so nuerotic about this but you have really put my mind at ease. I was so immersed in 144 that I missed the whole 72 hour thing which looked as though Shanghai was excluded omg! Get on and enjoy the holiday Iain
We are considering an itinerary like this: Seoul-Bejing-Hong Kong-Shanghai-Auckland. Would this work with the 144-hour rule?
Based on that, it looks good as long as you’re within the hour restrictions of the 144-hour rule as Hong Kong is considered for the purposes of this visa to be “outside of China”.
Hi, One question about transit visa free for China:
Is 144 hours transit visa free works with following travel plan:
NewYork–Kunming–HongKong (1st flight NewYork to Kunming is via Beijing transit. No direct flight NY to Kunming ). In this case can I get 144 visa free for Kunming.
Hey Marie, this would only work if your flight in and out of China is all through Beijing. Once you land in Beijing you can do a separate flight to Kunming. Is your flight to Hong Kong from Beijing?
Hi There,
I will fly from New Zealand to hong Kong will stay for 3 days and going to stay in Macau for couple of days. From macau plan to fly to Beijing and spend less than 144 hours and fly back to Hong Kong. am I qualified for the 144-hour Free Transit? please advise. thank you
Based on what you have here, you qualify since Hong Kong and Macau for the purposes of the transit visa aren’t part of “being in China”.
I haven’t really been able to find any information on my situation, so was wondering if you had any insight.I actually have a round trip from Montreal, Canada to Beijing, China, but I have a third country I am seeing in between. So my short trip will be the following:
Montreal to Beijing (staying in Beijing for 3 days), Apr 6-9
Beijing to Taipei (staying in Taipei for 3 days), Apr 9-12
Taipei to Tokyo (staying in Tokyo for 3 days), Apr 12-15
Tokyo to Beijing (probably stay 1 more night in Beijing) to catch flight home to Montreal Apr 16
The only thing is that I am coming back to Beijing after traveling Japan and Taiwan and staying in Beijing for another night, will it be problematic to apply for another visa (24 hr) on top of the first 72 (or 144) hour visa previously? In addition, I know the 144/72 hr visas aren’t valid on round trips ie Montreal-Beijing-back to Montreal, technically mine is a round trip, the Montreal-Beijing-Montreal is booked on the same reservation code, but I have other countries in between. Will that be a problem? Or would the customs people not be able to check that and as long as I show them my onwards flight to Taiwan, it should be fine?
Oh man I wish I had the definitive answer. I don’t know whether they really do care about whether the RT is booked on the same ticket because technically based on what I see here, you should be okay since in both instances you’re just “passing through”. I’ve also read about Taiwan and that you need to make sure you have a visa on your passport and not be relying on an e-visa as they could reject your transit visa as well so be careful.
Thanks so much for this! The Taiwan visa is news to me – were you referring to going to China from Taiwan? I read on the Canadian government and Canada Visa Services’s site that we don’t require a visa if our visit to Taiwan is under 90 days (I’m Canadian).
http://visaservicescanada.ca/countries/taiwan.php
https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/taiwan
Hey Laura, ah if that’s the case you should be okay. I’m Canadian as well but wanted to make sure as I know not all countries can enter visa free.
Hello,
Ive tried looking all over the internet for this question and the comment below mine seemed promising in answering it, but I wanted another opinion of my itinerary. I have booked a roundtrip, nonstop flight from Chicago to Beijing on Feb 16 and Shanghai back to Chicago on Feb 28 with United. I also plan to travel to Tokyo on Feb 21 from Beijing and onwards to Shanghai Feb 24 with ANA. Ill leave Shanghai on Feb 28 with United back to Chicago.
So it looks more like this:
Chicago/Beijing Feb 16/17
Beijing from Feb 17-21
Tokyo from Feb 21-24
Shanghai from Feb 24-28
Shanghai/Chicago Feb 28
Am I eligible for the transit visa? Or am I better off getting a Chinese tourist visa.
Thanks
Hey Jake, just took a look at your itinerary and based on my knowledge of the transit visa, you should be okay but I can see where things get a bit fuzzy because you’d be eligible with 2 legs as long as you’re good with the hour calculations:
#1) Chicago -> Beijing -> Tokyo
#2) Tokyo -> Shanghai -> Chicago
The question is that since these cross between two tickets, will they care? Technically, you’re good but the frustrating part is that I wish there was a way to pre-vet itineraries with someone.
I think if you want to play it safe, I’d still get a tourist visa but if you’re feeling confident, you can give it a try. My friend that tried this was on one single ticket. Tokyo -> Shanghai -> Toronto.
Hi
If i go in on one airline and leave on another, on a separate booking, can I make use of this visa.
e.g CDG-PVG via DOH, HKG-CDG via DOH with a separate PVG to HKG flight on cathay?
Yes they don’t care about the airlines that you fly. As long as you’re within the rules of the number of hours and you ending up in a different country, you’re okay. The key is that you need to fly in and out of the same region. Since you’re coming into PVG, your exit out of China needs to be from PVG. The part that I’m not so sure about is where HKG fits into all of this and whether that’s considered going to a different country (my feeling is no).
Hi. I’m planning Japan to Shanghai for 4 days then to Taiwan for 1 night then back to Japan. Will this be eligible . Thanks for your time.
Hey! Since you’re going onwards to a new country (there’ll be debate about that…), you should be but since Taiwan is a bit of a special case, I would maybe try to ask to make sure. For the 4 days, as long as the way you calculate it is within 144 hours, you should be fine.
Thank you for the post! I read somewhere on TripAdvisor about if I am visiting for less than 24 hours, then they might deny entry even if I am doing the Entry without Visa program. I will be flying from Taipei – Shanghai (staying for about 16 hours) – Seattle with a US passport. We have a hotel confirmed for that night. Do you think it will be a problem?
I don’t think that should be an issue based on the rules. But as you said, the challenge has been that you do hear the one-odd story of people being denied for some reason. I really wish there was a process to pre-approve travel plans so this is less of an area of confusion.
I’m planning on visiting Beijing for few days on my way home from teaching in Korea. I’ll be flying Japan-Beijing-Toronto, but from previous experience airlines usually don’t give you the ticket for your flight until you check in. Is showing the email/purchase confirmation for my Beijing-Toronto flight enough, or do I have to check in to the flight a few days early?
I’m stressing a little because of the possible language barrier and I don’t want to live in an airport for 5 days.
From what I’ve read, having a booking confirmation is enough because with a 144 hour window, you likely won’t be able to check-in like you said.
What is the experience of registering at the police station like? Some people online say it is a huge pain, the officers don’t speak English, and some places won’t even understand why you’re there. I’m planning on staying with a friend in Shanghai, not at a hotel, so this part of the process leaves me with a lot of questions.
Hi Dee, that’s a good question. And yes it’s true that it can totally be a pain because customer service and patience aren’t exactly their forté. With the friend you’re staying at, do they speak Mandarin? That would help a lot in terms of explaining things but otherwise it will be a challenge. I wonder if there’s a way to have something pre-written so you can just hand them a piece of paper and then they’ll know what to do.
Unfortunately, my friend doesn’t speak Mandarin. I’m not sure if she’ll have access to someone who does, but I can check.
I’ve seen that the officials who give you the visa also give you printed instructions in both English and Mandarin that mention going to the local police station. Perhaps that would work well enough to get the message across?
Really appreciate the prompt reply!
That would be really helpful if they did do that because then you’d just be able to pass it along to the officer and they’d know what to do. I’d run with that if you can – ask the officer at the airport to provide you that slip and then you should be good to go.
Hiya, I need some urgent help. My flight plan is :
OUTWARD – London – Shanghai. Stay for business for 3 days.
RETURN – Shanghai – Amsterdam – London
As Netherlands will be the 3rd country of transit I believe I apply, but want to confirm this before I book. The travel page hasn’t come back to me with an answer and was hoping you could help?
Thanks!
Rachel
Hey! Okay so based on what I see here, you should be fine because the main thing you’re looking for is that you’re coming from somewhere outside of China and your leaving to go to a different place (London vs. Amsterdam). Just make sure you calculate by the hour whether you’re within the 144 days based on what I explained. The only thing I’m not 100% on since I’ve never tried it, is landing for “business” purposes. There’s nothing on the Chinese websites I’ve reviewed that says anything about it so I think you’re fine. Also make sure you have your hotel information with you. New tool that you can use by the Chinese government: http://app.www.gov.cn/govdata/html5/2018/visafreetransit/pc/index.html
Any clue about business meetings? Are they still okay under this exemption? It looked like they were under that travelchinaguide website, but I was wondering if anyone had any experience in that.
Hi Cara, I don’t have personal experience in declaring as a business meeting but from what I’ve read I don’t think it’s an issue.
I am travelling from uk via Dubai landing in Beijing. Staying in Beijing 3 nights then getting train to Shanghai 3 nights. Fly from Shanghai to Indonesia. Can I use the 144 day transit. If not what do I do?
Hi Gail, based on your itinerary right now, you won’t be able to use the 144-day visa because you’re landing in one zone and flying out of a different zone. Now what you could do is landing in Beijing, touring around for 2 days, train down to Shanghai to tour 2-3 days and then train back up to Beijing to fly down to Indonesia. I know this would mean changing your flights but it’s the zone part that is the concern here. I hope that helps! Alternatively, you could make Shanghai your base instead of Beijing.
I heard about a 72 hour visa, but didn’t know about this 144hr one, and the zones.
Thanks for sharing!
NP! It works but there’s just not that much information out here and airlines are hesitant to promise anything so you have to do your research ahead of time to make sure you’re good.
will this work for the 144 hour rule
usa –> tokyo –> beiijng –> usa
Is Tokyo a transfer or are you staying there overnight or for a couple of days?