China Extends Visa-Free Transit to 10 Days, Drops Regional Restrictions (Good News for Americans, Canadians & Brits)

Over the past 12 months, more and more news about China dropping visa requirements for foreign tourists came in. If you hold a passport of one of out of 38 European countries, you can currently visit China for up to 30 days without applying for a visa. While the list of eligible countries kept growing, citizens of Canada, the United Kingdom or the USA were out of luck. They still need to apply for a visa – or make the best out of China’s visa-free transit policy.

The latter part just became a lot easier. While the transit-visa policy still requires a connecting ticket between two other countries with China in the middle, two notable restrictions have been lifted.

• The maximum duration has been increased. You can now spend up to 10 days in China between two flights under the policy (previously 6 days).
• The regional restriction of the transit-visa has been lifted. Previously, if you entered the country through Shanghai, you were not allowed to leave the city and its neighbouring provinces. Now, you can theoretically take a day trip to Beijing between flights.

The number of eligible airports has also been increased to over 60. As most international airports were on the list already, that is the least exciting part of the announcement.

Chinese Visa-Free Transit Rules

To make the most out of the rule, we have compiled basic information about the Chinese transit-visa and how to get your hands on it: Basically, your stay in China must be a transition on a trip between two other states. Your itinerary has to be Country A -> China -> Country C. It is important that Country A and Country C have to be different states. You have to proof your possession of a valid ticket to Country C upon check-in and immigration.

There are several ways to take advantage of that rule:

Example 1: Country C is Near to Country A

The transit rule allows you to travel non-stop from the San Francisco to Shanghai, stay there for ten days and fly back to California with a stop in Tokyo. In this case, your stay in China is a transit on your trip from San Francisco to Japan. This will work with more countries, even lying closer together, like:

• United States -> China -> Canada -> United States
• United Kingdom -> China -> France -> United Kingdom

Routings like this can usually booked on one ticket within an airline alliance. Like United Airlines and Air Canada (Star Alliance) from American airports, Air France & KLM (SkyTeam) from Europe or British Airways & Iberia (Oneworld) for England & Spain. This is an example for Star Alliance carriers Air Canada & United Airlines:

Example 2: Country C is Near to China

The second option is a routing that does not include a neighbouring country to your origin, but a neighbouring country to China. Importantly: Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan do not count as Chinese soil in this context. You can purchase either two separate tickets like Home – Beijing – Home and Beijing – Hong Kong – Beijing. Even easier – you can take advantage of a fare with free stopovers like this one:

Example 3: Part of Circling Through Asia

This is basically a mixture of the examples above: Let’s say you have planned a long stay in Japan, but also want to discover countries in the vicinity. You can spend up to 10 days in China when booking a flight from Tokyo to Shanghai, then visit South Korea on your way back to Japan.

It doesn’t have to be a round-trip, either. Just wedge in ten days of China on your way from Taiwan to Bangkok:

Bottom Line

While China opened up to many tourists from around the world in 2024, some of our largest reader bases like the United Kingdom and USA have not been readily invited to the country (yet). The extension of the visa-free-transit rule gives them more opportunities to explore the country without a visa.

Thanks to LoyaltyLobby!

Cover Picture: Thanks to pixabay user artemtation