I 100 percent agree, however, as someone who just recently got rejected taking the politely stand your ground and tell them to type it into TIMATIC or call China Immigration, I sure wish I had something from the Chinese Embassy. Not sure if it would have helped TBH, but maybe it could have.



Agent incompetence is unfortunately a thing regarding the 240 hour rule given the number of stories out there similar to mine. I was arrogant and assumed it wouldn’t happen to me because I was flying out of MIA on Air France a large international carrier, and I am a very calm person and very good at persuading people in tense situations and felt I could argue my case. I also was not flying out of some small rural airport where these rules may be very foreign as well. I overestimated my ability to persuade despite all the evidence being it should have been allowed. They called some 24 hour number, not sure who, but the person on the end of the phone’s say was AbSOLUTELY final, as once he said no we got flagged. I eventually persuaded the duty manager that we were correct and he felt awful and started crying for ruining our holiday especially since our 9yo was crying at the desk as well. He then proceeded to call several people to unflag us in the system, but the moment we got flagged for that particular flight, he said no matter what we were not going to be able to fly that route that day. He could push us out two days later because the next day flight was fully booked being the 23rd of Dec, and then we wouldn’t be flagged any more, but said there is no guarantee whoever was going to make the decision for us to board the next time wouldn’t shoot us down again. That’s when I said screw this, and decided to fly to LHR to CDG to HKG to PVG, instead of trying to deal with AF on this issue again.



The OP was just nervous, and outside of getting a full fledged visa, or flying into PVG from a closer airport such as NRT, or ICN that would maybe have more experienced with the rule, the only other option that would maybe decrease the anxiety regarding the situation would be something official from the Embassy. Unfortunately, I foresee stories such as mine and many others to continue to pop up until China changes their image of being incredibly strict on visas. They are trying with these new rules but obviously the general population still views China as a Visa country. Most people I talk to ask me about getting a Visa for this trip. Very few know the nuances.



Also from reading other’s stories after this happened to our family, that some agents become entrenched and do not listen to reason, such as checking TIMATIC, or calling Chinese immigration like we suggested at the time. They simply follow their beliefs that China requires a visa when in fact they do not in certain situations.