Originally Posted by zuks7

Huge thanks for this thread and wiki post, really valuable info here.

Here's my question:
I have an itinerary that qualifies for the 72 hour transit (US citizen, flying from US to Beijing, arriving 9:40 am Oct 6, then leaving to a different country from Beijing Oct 9 at 12:55pm).

However, a friend of mine called PEK immigration and spoke to them directly and they said that the transit period starts from the moment the flight is scheduled to land (and not 00:01 of the next day) to the moment the next flight is scheduled to depart. Furthermore, he said that the immigration at the Beijing airport can force me back if the transit is over 72 hours.

I'm a bit concerned now with this - has anyone experienced any issues with staying over 72 hours while flying through PEK? Would they respect/care if I have a printout from TIMATIC (from star alliance website)? Is there any document from any official Chinese website that I could bring with me to convince immigration in PEK that it's 72 hours from the midnight of the day after arrival?