Originally Posted by daloosh

Since you are flexible, then maybe the exact dates aren't important. And more interestingly, perhaps you can use the 72 hour or 144 hour visa-free transit policy to see some part of China. If you fly thru numerous Chinese cities, and onward to a third country, you can stay 72 or 144 hours in that city or region. Even better, the 72 hours, for example, starts the day following your arrival, so you could actually stay longer than 72 hours. Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau are considered third countries for this policy. As ATOBTTR points out, you can't fly for example, into Shenzhen and then travel overland by bus or car to Hong Kong. You also can't fly into one city such as Shanghai, and take a high speed train to Beijing and fly out of Beijing, even tho both are 144 hour regions. Good luck and have fun!