🇨🇳China

Decision flow

Four questions decide your visa obligation.

1. Is your country visa-free? China's unilateral visa-free list runs to 50 countries: 35 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Brunei, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia in Asia, and Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Peru and Uruguay in the Americas. Czechia and Lithuania are the two EU member states missing from it - both still need a visa arranged in advance. Ordinary passports only.
2. What is the purpose? Business, tourism, visiting relatives or friends, exchange visits and transit all qualify. Long-term study, employment with a Chinese employer and journalism do not - those need a visa in advance, type X, Z or J.
3. How long? Up to 30 days, visa-free is enough. Beyond 30 days, apply in advance for a type L tourist visa at a Chinese visa application centre (CVASC).
4. Only transiting? If your nationality is not on the visa-free list, the 240-hour visa-free transit may still work - see below.

The visa-free extension runs until 24:00 on 31 December 2026, Beijing time. The UK and Canada were added on 17 February 2026 and sit under the same end date.

The Digital Arrival Card

In force since 20 November 2025, and it replaces the old paper arrival form.

• When - online within three days (72 hours) before arrival. There is no earliest limit inside that window, and no requirement to have done it 24 hours out.
• Where - the National Immigration Administration platform, the "NIA 12367" app, or the NIA WeChat and Alipay mini-programs.
• What it needs - your passport data page, the flight or train number, and the address of your first accommodation.
• If you did not file it - you can still complete it at the border checkpoint on arrival, or on a paper form. It is not a visa and does not grant entry on its own.
• Seven categories are exempt, among them holders of the Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card, Mainland Travel Permit holders from Hong Kong and Macao, group-visa travellers, passengers transiting within 24 hours without clearing immigration, same-ship cruise passengers, e-channel users and cross-border vehicle crew.

The 240-hour visa-free transit

A separate scheme for nationalities that are not visa-free, and it is strict about the itinerary.

• 55 nationalities qualify, the United States included.
• 65 ports across 24 provinces since 5 November 2025, when Guangzhou, Hengqin and Zhongshan in Zhuhai, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and West Kowloon Station were added to the original 60.
• Up to 10 days, and only within the designated areas of the provinces that admitted you.
• It requires an onward ticket to a third country or region, with a confirmed date and seat. London - Shanghai - Tokyo works; Hong Kong - Shanghai - Hong Kong does not, because that is not a third region.
• Tourism, business, exchanges and family visits are allowed on it; work, study and news reporting are not.

Customs limits per adult

• Alcohol - 1.5 litres of beverages above 12 % alcohol.
• Tobacco - 400 cigarettes, or 100 cigars, or 500 grams of tobacco.
• Cash - declare more than 20,000 CNY, or more than USD 5,000 or the equivalent in other currencies.
• Banned outright - fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy, and any printed matter, film or data media judged harmful to the political, economic, cultural or moral interests of the PRC.

Police registration

Compulsory, and it is on you if you are not in a hotel. A licensed hotel registers you automatically when it scans your passport at check-in.

• In private accommodation, staying with friends, or in an unlicensed short-let, register at the local police station within 24 hours of arriving (72 hours in rural areas).
• Since 20 March 2026, seven provincial-level regions - Hebei, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Hubei, Guangxi, Chongqing and Sichuan - accept the registration online through the NIA website, the "NIA 12367" app, or its WeChat and Alipay mini-programs, with no police-station visit.

What matters in practice

• Carry the address of your first night in Chinese characters. You need it for the arrival card, and again for the police registration or the hotel check-in.
• Have the embassy notice for your own nationality saved offline. Check-in staff at airports outside China do not always have the current visa-free list, and an official notice in English settles the argument faster than an explanation.

• Cash is declared at two separate thresholds: CNY 20,000 in Chinese currency, or the equivalent of USD 5,000 in foreign currency. The foreign-currency figure is the low one and the one travellers trip over.
• Satellite phones and GPS trackers are controlled. Bringing one without a licence is treated as a security offence, not an import irregularity.
• Political and religious material intended for distribution is prohibited. Personal copies are usually left alone; a carton of the same title is not.
• The duty-free allowance for personal goods is modest and the airport channels are used properly - the green channel is not a formality and bags do go through the scanner on the way in.
• Drones need registration and are barred outright near airports, government buildings and much of Beijing.

Health, insurance and where to be treated

Healthcare in China is not free and can be very expensive, and state hospitals do not bill foreign insurers directly - you pay and claim back. Travel insurance covering treatment and medical evacuation is the baseline.

Care in English is concentrated in international clinics and the international departments of class 3 state hospitals. The key facilities in Beijing:

You pay before you are treated, at every step. The system runs strictly pay-as-you-go.

• At the emergency room, in anything short of a life-threatening state, you pay a registration fee first.
• After seeing the doctor, you pay at the cashier for lab tests or X-rays before they are performed.
• At the pharmacy, you pay for the prescription before it is dispensed.
• To claim it back, collect the complete medical records, the itemised list of procedures, and the official tax receipt Fapiao (发票) with the hospital's round red stamp.

The FCDO keeps a list of English-speaking doctors and facilities across China if you are outside Beijing.

Which district

• Beijing - Wangfujing - the historic and commercial centre, walkable to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, on metro lines 1 and 5.
• Beijing - Sanlitun / Chaoyang - modern and international, the embassies, the Western restaurants and the nightlife.
• Shanghai - People's Square - where the main metro lines cross, including line 2 straight from Pudong airport. The easiest base for a first visit.
• Shanghai - Jing'an - residential and shopping, cafés and parks, quieter than People's Square with the same metro access.

Not every hotel may legally take you

Accepting foreign guests requires a permit from the local Public Security Bureau, and cheaper guesthouses, hostels and smaller inns (binguan) often do not hold one. They will turn you away at the desk.

• In May 2024 the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Commerce and the National Immigration Administration jointly ordered hotels to stop refusing foreign guests. It has improved things without fixing them - refusals are still one of the more common complaints from foreign travellers, so do not treat the order as a guarantee.
• Book somewhere that states it takes foreigners. The Chinese booking platforms carry a filter for it; a property with an English-language listing and foreign reviews is the practical proxy elsewhere.
• Expect a refundable deposit at check-in, in cash, as a hold on a credit card, or as an authorised payment in Alipay. It comes back at checkout.

Registration

A hotel registers your stay with the police automatically when it scans your passport at check-in - this is a legal requirement under the Exit and Entry Administration Law, not an optional formality.

• Staying anywhere else - a friend's flat, a short-let - you register yourself within 24 hours. Seven provincial-level regions (Hebei, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Hubei, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan) accept it online, as does Shanghai through its own police portal. Elsewhere it means the local police station.

The connection decides which apps work

In China this is a technical decision, not a convenience one. Without a connection you cannot start the payment apps, maps or a translator - and the type of connection decides whether half your apps work at all.

• A Chinese network blocks most Western apps. Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, Gmail and Facebook sit behind the Great Firewall, so a local SIM or local Wi-Fi needs a VPN that is installed and working before you arrive - and VPNs are regularly disrupted.
• An international travel eSIM routes around it. The data roams out through servers outside mainland China, so the censorship does not apply and the blocked apps simply work. This is what eSIM sellers mean when they advertise a "built-in VPN" - there is no VPN, only foreign routing.
• A local physical SIM gives the best coverage and a Chinese number, but requires real-name registration - passport plus a biometric face scan - and its traffic still passes the firewall.

Saily plans for China

Saily also sells day-capped plans marketed as unlimited - 5 GB a day at full speed, then throttled to 1 kbps, from 18.99 USD for 5 days.

Buying locally

• China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom all have counters in the international arrivals halls of the big airports - Beijing Capital and Daxing, Shanghai Pudong, Guangzhou Baiyun, Shenzhen Bao'an, Chengdu Tianfu.
• Bring your passport. Real-name registration is mandatory for every SIM sold in China and includes a face scan; budget five to ten minutes at the counter.
• Airport prices are marked up. A brand store in the city sells the same data for noticeably less, at the cost of a harder conversation and a longer wait.

Short verdict

Buy and install a Saily eSIM before you fly. It skips the registration queue, and it is the only option that gives you working navigation and messaging the moment you land - a foreign eSIM cannot be downloaded and installed once you are already behind the firewall. Add a local SIM later only if an app insists on a +86 number.

Sockets in China are Type A and I at 220 V, 50 Hz - flat American pins and the angled Australian-style three-pin, usually in the same double outlet.

• The Type C socket has been phased out. Since the 2021 revision of the national standard, hybrid outlets that took a Europlug may no longer be made or installed, though older buildings are still full of them.
• Chinese Type I is the same shape as the Australian plug. A 10 A Australian or New Zealand plug fits a Chinese socket, and vice versa.
• 220 V, so European and Australian appliances only need the right shape. American 120 V-only equipment needs a converter.
• Hotels aimed at foreign guests usually fit universal sockets that take anything; anywhere else, bring an adapter.
• Many sockets only open when the earth pin goes in first, so a two-pin plug in a three-pin socket sometimes simply refuses to enter.

Local rules worth taking seriously

• Photography - do not photograph or film military installations, barracks, government buildings, border zones, or uniformed police and military. The FCDO warns that photographing in sensitive areas attracts the attention of the authorities, and that can mean questioning and deletion of your data.
• Drones - the import, possession and use of drones and their components are strictly regulated. The FCDO's advice is to contact the Civil Aviation Administration of China before travelling for the current registration rules. Assume the centre of any large city is closed airspace.
• Drugs: zero tolerance. Possession, supply or trafficking of any quantity, cannabis included, carries very long sentences, life imprisonment or the death penalty. Police run drug tests in clubs and bars, and a positive result from something you took legally before you flew is still a positive result - detention, a fine, deportation and an entry ban.
• What you post is policed. Under the Cybersecurity Law, posts about the political system, officials, or the status of Taiwan or Tibet can bring prosecution or an exit ban.

Everyday practicalities

• Power - 220 V at 50 Hz, sockets type A and type I. Older buildings still have hybrid outlets that swallow a Europlug, but those were dropped from the national standard in 2021, so bring an adapter rather than counting on one. See the sockets section for the detail.
• Time - the whole country runs on UTC+8, which is why the winter sun comes up as late as 08:30 in Xinjiang and the west.
• Opening hours - malls, supermarkets and restaurants typically 10:00 to 22:00, seven days a week.
• Toilets are easy to find at metro stations and attractions, but are mostly squat type and stock no paper. Carry your own.
• Tap water is not drinkable in China, even in major cities. Bottled water is cheap and everywhere; hotel rooms usually provide a kettle and bottled water.
• Public Wi-Fi is effectively closed to you. Cafés, stations and airports verify by SMS to a Chinese number, so without a local SIM it will not let you on - one more reason to arrive with a working eSIM.

Paying by phone

China is almost cashless, and ordinary plastic is marginal. Pay by mobile through Alipay and WeChat Pay with an international Visa or Mastercard linked to the app. Both take cards from Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB, Diners Club and UnionPay.

• The 3 % is charged on the whole transaction, not the excess. A 250 CNY payment costs 7.50 CNY, not 1.50 CNY.
• An international UnionPay card is exempt from the service fee. If you can get one before you travel, it is the cheapest way to pay for anything expensive.
• First 60 days on WeChat Pay are free up to a point. International cardholders linking a card for the first time get the 3 % waived on daily transactions under 1,000 CNY for 60 consecutive days, capped at 30 CNY saved per transaction.

Withdrawing cash

• Use the major state banks - Bank of China (BOC), ICBC, China Construction Bank (CCB).
• Bank of China caps a foreign-card withdrawal at 3,000 CNY per transaction. Daily and annual limits are set by your own bank, not by the Chinese one.
• The withdrawal fee comes from your issuing bank. Bank of China does not set it, so check your own bank's foreign-ATM charge and exchange margin before you rely on cash.
• Refuse dynamic currency conversion and choose "Without Conversion" so the transaction settles in CNY. The DCC markup runs several percent on top of everything else.
• Take your card back as soon as the machine returns it. Chinese ATMs retain a card left in the slot, and recovering one means going to that branch in person during opening hours.

Cash as backup

Carry some cash for a dead phone or a dropped connection. Small notes are the constraint, not the amount - a 100 CNY note is often impossible to break for a small purchase.

• The convenience-store protocol - right after your first withdrawal, go into a 7-Eleven or FamilyMart, buy water or gum, and get the big note broken into 10 and 20 CNY notes.

Match the transport to your group and the clock.

• Solo traveller with light luggage - the Airport Express in Beijing at a flat 25 CNY, or in Shanghai the Maglev at 50 CNY (40 CNY on a same-day boarding pass) plus a metro transfer from Longyang Road. Both sidestep the traffic entirely.
• Family with children and luggage - an official airport taxi or a pre-booked private transfer. It costs several times the train but removes the interchanges.
• Night arrival after the last train - Beijing's Airport Express stops around 23:00 and Shanghai's Line 2 around 22:30, so it is DiDi or an official taxi from the marked rank.
• Tight budget - Shanghai's Metro Line 2 at 7 to 9 CNY all the way into the centre, or Beijing's airport bus at 20 to 30 CNY.

Do not look for a ticket machine. Urban transport is run through the payment apps; the machines often refuse foreign notes and do not take international cards at all.

• Use the transport section inside Alipay. Once your foreign card is linked, generate the transit QR code for the city you are in and hold it to the reader at the metro gates on the way in and out, or when boarding a bus. It works out the distance and charges the card - and since every ride is well under 200 CNY, no service fee applies.
• For taxis use DiDi Chuxing, either its own app or the mini-programs inside Alipay and WeChat. You can enter the destination in English and it translates messages to the driver; the fare is charged after the ride.
• For navigation use AMap. Google Maps is blocked, and its Chinese data is also shifted from the real street grid, so even offline it puts you in the wrong place.
• For intercity trains use the official China Railway 12306 app. It takes foreign passports and issues an e-ticket you board with using the passport itself.
• In Shanghai, if you are not in a hotel, register within 24 hours through the Public Security Bureau's self-help declaration system or the Suishenban app - no lease or deed needed, and the registration form is generated for download.

China does not recognise foreign licences or International Driving Permits. This is the one country where the answer is usually "you cannot".

• A temporary Chinese licence is the legal route. It is applied for at a vehicle administration office with a passport, visa, medical check and a translated licence, and it takes at least a day - practical for a long stay, not for a fortnight's trip.
• Hire companies will not rent to you without it. What they will do is rent a car with a driver, which is normal, unremarkable and priced accordingly.
• The alcohol limit is 0.02 % and the penalties for exceeding it include detention.
• Expressways are tolled at conventional plazas, and the network is enormous and modern.
• The high-speed rail makes the question academic for most itineraries: Beijing to Shanghai is four and a half hours station to station.

Safety and the most common scams

Physical safety is high - crime against foreigners is uncommon. What does operate is organised scam crews working the places tourists concentrate.

• The tea-tasting scam is the one the FCDO names, in Beijing around Wangfujing and Tiananmen Square, and in Shanghai on The Bund. The script does not vary: friendly, English-speaking young people approach, present themselves as students, and want to practise English or take a photo. After a few minutes they suggest a traditional tea house nearby. The bill that follows runs to hundreds or a few thousand yuan, the "students" are gone, and the venue's staff apply pressure until you pay. The FCDO warns the same crews run a massage-parlour version, and that both can escalate to threats, violence or credit-card fraud.
• The art-gallery scam - foreigners are steered to a "student exhibition" and pressured into buying worthless prints for thousands of yuan on the pretext of supporting young artists.
• The fake-monk scam - a "monk" presses an amulet or bracelet on you as a gift, then demands payment aggressively. Real Buddhist monks in China do not solicit tourists in the street.

The defence is the same for all three: decline any invitation from a stranger on the street, however friendly the approach. Nothing you would actually want to do requires being recruited on a pavement.

Emergency numbers

China has no single 112 or 911 line - the service you need decides the number. For an ambulance call 120: it is the state emergency medical service and covers the whole country. Beijing also runs a Red Cross line on 999, but 120 is the one to dial first.

English on the emergency lines is not reliable. If you can, have someone Chinese-speaking make the call, or use the international department of a hospital directly.

Paying for treatment

Chinese hospitals charge before they treat. You pay the registration fee, then pay for tests before they are run, and for medicine before it is dispensed. Keep the itemised list and the red-stamped Fapiao (发票) receipt - without it your insurer will not reimburse you.