Originally Posted by
Shareholder
You will go through the normal Immigration line and show the officer your onward ticket and hotel booking. S/he may take you to a supervisor who will process you and put a special stamp/visa into your passport and you're on your way. Did this at PVG last month. You may want to print out the transit conditions in case your originating airline baulks at letting you fly because you don't have a "real" Chinese visa.
You are somewhat wrong. At PEK, there are desks marked special for "International Transit" and this is where this poster should go, not to the normal Immigration desks. They see this all the time and there shouldn't be any supervisors involved at the Intl Transit dedicated desks. PVG can be a little different in having no special setup.
Originally Posted by
Shimon
You don't need to pre-apply for a Chinese visa. You get a transit visa for 24 hours on the spot if you meet the conditions. The wording used makes it all confusing.
You are also somewhat wrong, and it is your wording making it even more confusing. This poster WILL NOT GET A TRANSIT VISA which is an entirely different thing, has different privileges and legal consequences, and which is obtained in advance. The OP will instead get a stamp in the passport which is unique for international transit passengers. It is NOT a visa at all. The proper terminology is Transit Without Visa (TWOV) and that is what everybody here should be referring to, from this day henceforth.
This OP should be good to go as is, no visa needed. I'd make sure the originating airline (the only likely source of a problem) is up-to-speed on this. If a Chinese airline, they already know and there should be no problems at check-in. It's the foreign airline check-in staff that are behind the times on this issue.