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Ralph Jennings

Visiting China used to be a costly, time-consuming process. Obtaining a Chinese visa often requires filling out pages of paperwork, paying more than US$100, and waiting for days for the documents to be processed.
But things have changed rapidly over the past few years, as Beijing has introduced a slew of new visa-free entry policies in a bid to attract more foreign visitors and boost the country’s tourism sector.
Most famously, the country now allows travellers from certain countries that are transiting through China to stay in the country without a visa for up to 10 days. The scheme currently covers passport holders from 55 nations, with Indonesia becoming the latest country to be included in June.
There are also several other visa-free policies in effect, each of which has different rules and eligibility criteria. Here are five different options for travellers planning to enter the mainland without a Chinese visa.
1. Transit through Chinese cities (10 days)
Passport holders from 55 nations – including Australia, Russia, the United States and countries throughout Europe – can enjoy an extended stay in much of mainland China when transiting through one of its international airports.
Travellers can enter China via 60 ports of entry across 24 provincial-level regions under the scheme, including airports in Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guilin, Kunming, Qingdao, Shenyang, Tianjin, Wuhan, Xiamen, Guangdong province and the Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang cluster.
A full list of the countries covered by the transit scheme and the ports of entry that can process visa-free entries is available here.
A transit stay of up to 24 hours, meanwhile, is open to visitors from any country arriving at any international airport.
Travellers must stay within the designated city or surrounding provinces for the allotted period. They are not allowed to visit other parts of mainland China on the same trip, but may enter from or depart to Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan.
There is no charge and no application to fill out before travel. A unique entry card may be required on arrival if they are available at the transit desk at the airport or seaport.
Passengers must, however, prove to the airline before boarding and again to immigration authorities after arriving that they have a ticket to leave the city or province – usually by air – to a place outside mainland China where they did not start their journey.
For example, a passenger may reach Shanghai visa-free from Singapore, and then proceed to Seoul – or fly from the special administrative region of Macau to Xiamen and onwards to Taipei.
Proof of a hotel booking in China sometimes speeds up the immigration process.
The departure time of the outbound ticket must fall within the transit window, which starts at midnight on the first full calendar day after arrival.
Round-trip tickets are not allowed, as they do not qualify as “transit”. For example, a visitor would not be able to fly from London to Shanghai and then return directly to London under the transit scheme.
Transit visa waivers began more than a decade ago to stimulate tourism spending and attendance at events such as trade shows, but there are no special limits on what travellers can do in China.


2. Stay in Hainan province (30 days)
The tropical island province of Hainan, which lies southwest of Hong Kong, has a special policy allowing nationals from 59 countries to enter visa-free.
Visitors need only to buy a round-trip flight to one of the province’s two main international gateways, Sanya or Haikou, and may be asked to fill out an arrival form on the plane.
Seaports with immigration kiosks can also process visa-free arrivals.
Hainan, long popular with domestic tourists during the cold season, began to allow visa-free travel in 2018 to stimulate tourism.
Travellers under this scheme are not allowed to visit other parts of China during the 30 days unless they have visas.
3. Book a group tour from Hong Kong or Macau to Guangdong province (6 days)
Citizens of any country that has diplomatic ties with China may legally join tour groups arranged by agencies registered in Hong Kong or Macau to enter specific cities in neighbouring Guangdong province.
Groups may enter Guangdong by land, sea or air and stay for 144 hours, with dozens of bus, rail and ferry routes connecting the province with Hong Kong.
To qualify, a tour group must have at least two people and no more than 40. The group should enter and exit at the same time, as arranged by the agency.
The nine Pearl River Delta cities of Dongguan, Foshan, Guangzhou, Huizhou, Jiangmen, Shenzhen, Zhaoqing, Zhongshan and Zhuhai are approved destinations.
Shantou, a coastal city located east of the delta, also falls under the scheme.
The Hong Kong Tourism Board’s website has called the scheme “subject to change without prior notice” and suggested contacting a tour operator for updated information.
Two major Hong Kong tour operators told the Post earlier last year that they were not offering visa-free tours to Guangdong.
A National Immigration Administration media representative in Beijing has suggested that travellers call the immigration hotline on +86 12367 with any related questions. The phone service is available to travellers both inside and outside mainland China. It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with services available in Chinese and English.
Separately, citizens of the 10 countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) may form tour groups of at least two people to visit the city of Guilin in China’s southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region or Xishuangbanna in Yunnan province – both visa-free for up to six days.


4. Arrive by cruise ship (15 days)
Foreign visitors may spend 15 days in China without a visa if they arrive on international cruises.
The rules grant entry to tour groups of at least two people via the cruise ports in Beihai, Dalian, Guangzhou, Haikou, Lianyungang, Qingdao, Sanya, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Wenzhou, Xiamen and Zhoushan.
Tourists disembarking from ships may stay in Beijing as well as China’s 11 coastal provinces, regions and municipalities that are directly under the central government.
These rules extend a pilot scheme from 2016 that allowed passengers to alight visa-free only in Shanghai.
The Shanghai rule, which was suspended during the coronavirus pandemic before being reinstated in 2023, lets tourists enter the eastern city via the Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal and stay for 15 days.
Travel agencies taking passengers to Shanghai must be registered in mainland China, and the entire tour group must enter and exit at the same time.
5. Have a passport from one of these 47 countries (30 days)
Passport holders from 47 countries – including most of Europe, plus growing swathes of the Middle East and Latin America – may enter China visa-free for 30 days.
China calls these visa-free offers unilateral, meaning the other countries do not necessarily offer Chinese nationals the same treatment. The idea is to stoke the Chinese service economy through tourism.
Citizens of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia became the latest to come under the unilateral 30-day rule, effective from June 9. Like people from other places on the list, they can travel for business, tourism, family visits or transit. France, Germany and Malaysia were among the first to join.
These schemes are set to expire between December 31 and June 8, with the later dates for countries added more recently.
China has mutual visa-free agreements with citizens from a separate list of countries, meaning Chinese nationals can visit the other side and vice versa, usually for 30 days.


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China has rapidly expanded its visa-free entry schemes in recent years to boost its tourism sector. Here is how the systems work


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5 ways to enter mainland China without a visa

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}China has rapidly expanded its visa-free entry schemes in recent years to boost its tourism sector. Here is how the systems work

China has rapidly expanded its visa-free entry schemes in recent years to boost its tourism sector. Here is how the systems work