jiejie

You're not getting the picture here. First, I suggest you do a search on this Forum for other threads containing "China" and "visa-free transit."

You MUST go through immigration, chill officers or not. There should be a sign/counter for "International Transit" and that is where you should go to get that diamond-shaped transit stamp in your passport. There likely won't be many people there compared to the regular domestic entry immigration lines. After you get past that, you can either decide to hang out at the airport or go into town. It might make sense to book a room at an airport hotel to get some rest, then get a shuttle bus to town the next morning for a look around.

Have you looked into the cost of cancelling this ticket entirely? When you consider hotel + other costs to keep yourself hanging around for that long layover, you might not be much worse off to suck it up and pay a cancellation fee, then start from scratch. Just make sure you have a bookable alternative flight at decent cost before you let go of this one--TPACS are expensive these days.

rkkwan

I have a couple of questions for jiejie and moondog. I hope each of you will reply as clearly as possible since I haven't read anything about this topic by either of you.

So, a traveler gets the diamond "visa-free transit" stamp through Chinese immigration (not PVG or SHA), and has a flight leaving same airport (not talking about Shanghai, but other cities) within 24 hours.

From what I have quoted and what anacapamalibu have linked, you are not supposed to leave the airport boundary without a permit from the border/frontier inspection office. Now, I have read through quite a few threads in this forum, and I have never seen any first hand report of this.

Now, I 100% understand as a practical standpoint, there's no one to stop the traveler from leaving the airport boundary. But for moondog and jiejie:

1. Do you guys feel that this is totally irrelevant, and it's okay to just ignore it?

2a. If yes, do you know what the consequence may be, if one is found outside airport perimeter?

2b. If no, does either of you have more information about this border/frontier inspection office - where one can find it at say PEK or CAN, and what question may they ask? If one says, I'm just going to an airport hotel outside the airport perimeter, is that sufficient for them to give the traveler the permit? Or if one says, I'm going to do a day-trip to the Great Wall (from PEK), will they issue such permit to you?

Thanks in advance for clarification.

anacapamalibu

You can't get out of airside without a visa or if you have an onward flight
to another country within 24 hours or in Shanghai 48 hrs then you can go to
the transfer desk get a transit stamp which will allow you to enter the country.

That's what I understand. But I wasn't aware that CAN had that option, thought it was just PEK and PVG.

rkkwan

Right, but again, there is the clear distinction between the 48-hr Shanghai rule and the 24-hr "elsewhere" rule. For Shanghai, you are free to go anywhere in Shanghai. For "elsewhere", you are not supposed to go beyond the airport boundaries. Hence my questions.

trooper

I was interested to see this thread as I am planning a 22 hour layover in Beijing... and am organising a visa from the Chinese Embassy here..

Going by the info on the timatic page on the *A website I would NOT be at all confident that I could get out of the PEK airport without that visa.

The wording is awkward... but it seems to exclude planned excursions of that type... I don't know how the link provided earlier in this thread applys...

anacapamalibu

I am not sure if CAN has the 24 hr rule. I have read places
its same day.

TWOV (Transit Without Visa):
- All transiting passengers are subject to passport control.

For more details on document requirements, please enter
China (People's Rep.) as a destination.

Visa required, except for Those passengers continuing their

journey within 24 hours (or within the same day at Guangzhou -
CAN) to a third country by the same or first connecting

anacapamalibu

If you can get past entry officer you are in China. Limiting someone to stay
inside the airport is unenforceable at that point. Getting on a plane to leave
China without a visa or that diamond stamp might be pretty difficult.

rkkwan

Again, I totally understand that rule is un-enforcable. But it doesn't mean there is zero consequence if something happens. And I don't think anybody should simply ignore parts of the rules (even though they're just on paper) when giving out information on a public forum as if that part of the rule does not exist.

Edit: Just like in the US, tens of thousands of people enter the US legally and then overstay without being caught. But that doesn't mean one should advice others that it's totally okay to overstay in the US since nobody will come looking for you.

RI2KH2SU

This sounds unclear and like a headache. I've lived here long enough to know that rules can be interpreted diffferently by different people, and not always in a favorable way. I still think paying that $300 is the best option here if an alternative decent flight can be found!

anacapamalibu

They need to change their law to this:

Article 8 Aliens can get a transit visa if they have a ticket and booked seats on an airline departing within 24 hours to a foreign country, but
can not leave the airport.

moondog

My favorite thread on this topic was the one in which KVS rode in and spelled things out in manner that quieted the naysayers in short order. Adding "KVS" to your searches will probably bring up the thread in question. Otherwise, the wiki article on this topic is accurate and up to date. TWOV works at all airports in China that have flights to/from at least two countries.

anacapamalibu

from the horse's mouth

第八条　外国人持有联程客票 并已定妥联程座位 搭乘国际航班 从中国直接过境， 在过境城市停留不超过24小时，不出机场的，免办过境签证；要求离开机场的，须向边防检查站 申请办理停留许可手续。

rkkwan

Okay, this is what moondog is refering to:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/15672890-post36.html

So, is that more accurate or is what anacapamalibu and I find more accurate? I believe what KVS quoted is from timatic, which is what airlines use to determine whether a passenger is allowed onto an international flight. It doesn't necessarily means it is the absolute correct interpretation of the Chinese law. Similarly, what the Chinese embassies state may not be 100% accurate either.

Anyways, yes, it says going outside "airport transit area" is allowed. But it doesn't say whether an additional permit from a border/frontier inspection office (边防检查站) is required to go outside airport perimeter - maybe yes, maybe no.

Also, according to KVS/timatic, CAN transit has to be within same day, not 24 hours. So, the first airline should not let the OP onto that flight into CAN to start with. But again, that is not what the embassies indicate.

anacapamalibu

The whole trip is on a state owned airline, they can make their own rules.

jiejie

1. That diamond-shaped stamp you get serves as the defacto "permit"--there is no separate piece of paper or office you need to visit. The very act of going through immigration even for transit means the passenger did not ignore anything and fulfilled the legal responsibility. Interesting note: for international transfer in PEK between T2 and T3, you HAVE to leave "the airport perimeter" since there's no other option (short of sprinting across the runways).

2a. No consequence at all, if you have that stamp in your passport. At any rate, unless a crime has been committed, a passenger-in-transit is unlikely to be stopped anywhere and have some authority pull a "Papers Please" action. Where you'd get into trouble is if by some stretch of imagination you managed to not get an inbound stamp....then upon reaching exit immigration for your outbound, you'd have issues. Or, if you just decided to stay on for a few extra days in China, it's likely you would not be caught until you tried to leave...then it's likely there'd be some fines and possibly a short detention at the airport. If they felt like it, they could blackball you in their computer and redstamp your passport which would tell all and sundry you've been naughty, and which could bar you from China for a number of years into the future.

But practically speaking, there's really no way outside spy movie-maneuvering, for a passenger to escape going through standard incoming immigration or international transit immigration---and both places lead to the ability to escape outside the airport (at least at the intl airports in China I've been to). In the same city as you received your transit stamp, you should be able to use this without problems to check into an off-airport hotel such as a city property. What I have no data points on is trying to check into a hotel in a more distant location with only the transit stamp. For instance, trying to register for the night in Hangzhou when your incoming transit stamp is PVG. Perhaps moondog will show up with some data on this.

2b. Answered in 1 already.


The way the current Chinese policy is set up, and physical facilities for immigration have been located, is that even if you are only transiting for an hour or two, you can't just arrive off of a flight and then "stay airside" at the outgoing departure gate areas. You are herded through arrival procedures including immigration which you must go through. At least in the Chinese airport international arrivals that I've seen. For transit passengers, it's a matter of going to the "International Transit" desk (if available) and/or getting a different stamp than passengers entering China with visas. Passengers using visa-less transfer (and obviously having no visa) submit their onward boarding pass (or confirmed onward booking in lieu of) to the immigration officer--don't worry, they know which stamp you are supposed to receive. Transit passengers on very short layovers do this then immediately go back through security again before re-arriving airside for their wait at lounge or boarding gate. For the uninitiated, some (most? all?) Chinese airport terminals completely separate the arriving passenger stream and the departing passenger stream, so you'd have to pass some official document and security check sequence to get from one to the other.

The 24-hour rule applies to ALL Chinese airports that have international flights, and can theoretically have international-to-international transit connections. And to all nationalities (unless the Chinese are in a temporary snit against a country and pull visa-free transit privileges selectively). The 48 hour rule for PVG and SHA transits ONLY APPLIES TO passport holders of SELECTED countries, normally the First World. If one's passport is not on that list of eligibles, then your visa-free transit privilege is limited to the standard 24 hours at PVG/SHA. This is often misinterpreted, you have to read the regulation carefully.

In a practical sense, PEK and PVG are the two airports one is most likely to be able to schedule an international-to-international transit, simply because of the volume of flights and airlines operating in those locations. However, CAN is CZ's base and is running an increasing amount of i-to-i flights. Chengdu is seeing increasing i-to-i transits, especially passengers travelling from countries west of China heading eastbound--this city often has a double-transit stop situation CTU + PEK or CTU + PVG--which is actually legal but trickier to get the timing right. The main Chinese airlines (CA, MU, CZ) generally are well-versed in the double-transit stop situation, as they are the only ones running schedules where this could come into play. Japanese and Korean carriers run quite a number of direct flights into Chinese airports such as HGH or KMG, where it is completely possible to have an international transit (though usually you see it attempted less often because the routing is likely to be more expensive than a direct flight).