Since the end of last year, Chinese immigration authorities have also strengthened their existing visa exemption system by adding 12 countries to their visa-exempt list as part of efforts to promote travel to Japan.
1. Visit 23 cities in China (3-6 days)
Passport holders from 54 countries, including Australia, Japan, the United States and European countries, can travel to most parts of mainland China via international airports.
Airports such as Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guilin, Kunming, Qingdao, Shenyang, Tianjin, Wuhan, Xiamen, Guangdong Province, and the Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang Cluster are offering visa-free arrival procedures for transit passengers for 72 to 144 hours.
The full list of cities spans 18 states and 31 points of entry, such as airports and seaports.
Travelers must remain within the designated city or surrounding state for the duration of the transit period.
Visiting other parts of mainland China on the same trip is not permitted, but travelers can enter and exit through Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
There is no fee and no form to fill out before you travel or when you arrive.
However, passengers must prove to the airline before boarding, and to immigration authorities after arriving, that they have a ticket to leave a city or province (usually by plane) to a location outside mainland China other than the one from which their trip began.
For example, a passenger could fly from Singapore to Shanghai without a visa and then continue to Tokyo, or fly from Macau SAR to Xiamen and then on to Taipei.
Proof of a hotel reservation in China may speed up immigration procedures.
The travel time for your outbound ticket must be within 72 or 144 hours. The 72 or 144 hours technically begins on the first calendar day after your arrival.
However, round trip tickets are not permitted as they do not meet the “transfer” requirement.
The transit visa waiver was launched more than a decade ago to boost tourism spending and attendance at events such as trade fairs, but it places no particular restrictions on what travelers can do in China.
2. Hainan Province (30 days)
Hainan Province, a tropical island on China's southernmost tip, offers visa-free entry to citizens of 59 countries.
Visitors simply need to purchase round-trip tickets to Sanya or Haikou, the province's two major gateways, and fill out arrival forms on the plane.
Visa-free entry is also available at ports with immigration kiosks.
The province once required visa-free visitors to arrange their trips through travel agencies based in Hainan, but this requirement has now been officially scrapped.
Hainan province launched visa-free travel in 2018 to boost tourism.
Travelers under this scheme cannot visit other parts of China within 30 days unless they have a visa.
3. Tour groups from Hong Kong or Macau to Guangdong (6 days)
Nationals of countries that have diplomatic relations with China can lawfully join group tours arranged by travel agencies registered in Hong Kong or Macau and enter certain cities in neighboring Guangdong province.
Groups can enter Guangdong by land, sea and air for up to 144 hours, and there are dozens of bus, rail and ferry routes connecting the province with Hong Kong.
To be eligible, tour groups must be between 2 and 40 people and must enter and exit at the same time, as arranged by the travel agency.
It includes nine cities in the Pearl River Delta: Dongguan, Foshan, Guangzhou, Huizhou, Jiangmen, Shenzhen, Zhaoqing, Zhongshan and Zhuhai.
Shantou, a coastal city on the east side of the delta, is also part of a similar plan.
03:23
Mainland China's social media site “Little Red Book” introduces unexpected tourist spots in Hong Kong
Mainland China's social media site “Little Red Book” introduces unexpected tourist spots in Hong Kong
However, the Hong Kong Tourism Board's website says the scheme is “subject to change without prior notice” and suggests people contact their hotel concierge or tour operator for the latest information.
And two major Hong Kong travel agencies told The Post earlier this year that they were not offering visa-free tours to Guangdong.
A media official for the State Immigration Administration in Beijing confirmed in early June that the policy, which was implemented 24 years ago, is still in place.
Media representatives encourage travelers to call the immigration hotline at +86 12367 if they have any relevant questions. The service is available to travelers both within and outside mainland China. It operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and is available in Chinese and English.
Additionally, citizens of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries can visit Guilin city in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region visa-free for 144 hours as part of a tour group of two or more people.
4. Arrived by cruise ship (15 days)
The rules will allow tour groups of at least two people to enter the country through all 13 of China's cruise ports, from the city of Dalian east of Beijing to Sanya in the south.
The policy is an extension of a 2016 pilot plan that restricted entry points to only the Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal.
02:27
China expands visa-free travel to six new countries
China expands visa-free travel to six new countries
Shanghai's rules, which were suspended during the coronavirus pandemic and reinstated last year, allowed tourists to disembark at the Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal without a visa and stay for 15 days.
Travel agencies taking passengers to Shanghai must register in mainland China, and all tour groups must enter and leave the country at the same time.
Visitors under Shanghai's plan will be able to travel over a 15-day period to Beijing, the whole of China's coastline with its ports and further south to the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which borders Vietnam.
5. Passport holders from 12 countries, mainly Western Europe (15 days)
At the end of November, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that passport holders from France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Spain would be able to enter China visa-free for 15 days.
Since then, authorities have added Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg and Switzerland to the list.
Visitors under the agreement will be allowed for tourism, business, family visits and transit.
The scheme will begin on December 1 and run until the end of 2025, according to the National Immigration Agency.
