Travelling to China

When you plan to travel to China, you usually need a valid visa to be allowed to enter China. However, depending on your citizenship, you might be eligible to travel to China without obtaining a visa in advance. Before travelling, we suggest to contact your travel agent/local Chinese consulate to verify whether you are eligible to enter China via one of the following visa-free policies.

Visa-free travels

China has established a visa-free policy for citizens of 64 countries. Under this policy, travellers for tourism, business and visit a conference are eligible to get permission to enter and stay in China for up to 30 days, without additional constraints about the places that can be visited; they however cannot study/enroll at a university or work/receive a salary. See e.g. this page for further information.

Visa-free transit

Citizens of some other countries, such as Canada, UK, and USA are not eligible to travel under the above visa-free policy. However, they can take advantage of the visa-free transit, provided they are entering China at specific ports, like Beijing’s airports. Under the visa-free transit policy, travellers are usually allowed to stay in China for a maximum of 10 days, but they cannot leave the administrative zone; this means, for instance, that a traveller landing in Beijing is not allowed to visit Shanghai. Since it is a visa-free transit policy, it is necessary to enter China from a different country/region than to exit. For instance, it is possible to enter China arriving with a direct flight from Los Angeles and then leave with a flight to Hong Kong; similarly, arrive from Seoul and leave to San Francisco. See e.g. this page for further information.