Delta simply links to Timatic for the info. Timatic is the industry standard database for such information, a service of IATA. And kudos to Delta for making the database accessible; few airlines do.

Thought I would add my experience with going to China.

BEWARE OF IROPS checking in at a busy DL operation with a Chinese Visa. You must check in with an agent, no Kiosks.

My second trip to China was in March/April 2008. Leaving on Friday, BHM-ATL-ICN-PVG. Weather/Equipment Outage in ATL delayed BHM-ATL to arrive 30 minutes after ATL-ICN left. GA was very helpful, rebooked me ATL-PVG direct for next day. Took BHM-ATL on Friday, and spent the night in ATL. Arrived next day 3 hours ahead of time. Problem was between IROPS/the first day of Georgia Spring break, DL check-in in ATL was melting down. 3 hours in line got me to agent right as my flight was leaving (my last flight w/o status, but later found out Medallion was still 2 hour wait). Spring break meant the only other option was $5000 for Air France to oversell ATL-CDG (continuing to CDG-PVG), or ATL-PVG on Sunday. Needless to say I checked in a 3 AM Sunday Morning, and still waited in line 45 minutes.

Just wanted to point out that you must remember that you have to see an agent to check in for China Itinerary. Kiosk check in would have gotten me to the gate with plenty of time.

I used the service below and it was very fast.
http://www.passportsandvisas.com/visas/china.asp

Mikeplat, if you get Chionese visas every year then you should know that for the last four years or so the price of visas for US pssport holders has been the same irregarless of whether you get a one entry one month visa or a two year multiple entry visas, as posted by another above the only difference in cost is how fast you want it expedited (i.e. less than their "standard" four days). Regarding no visa, the Shanghai information above is factually incorrect. It only applies for up to 48 hours if you are transitting into and out of DIFFERENT Shanghain airports (SHA and PVG), it can at times be a challenge to find int'l flights out of PVG to do this....I have had to get people in and out at the last minute who could not get visas in advance and this is not the easiest trick. The only other "hole" currently is that groups of 5 US citizens can visit Hainan with a group visa which is essentially a letter from a Hainan tour agency (many other countries can now do Hainan without Visas, not US citizens though).

BTW, she'll need no such letter, that garbage mostly applies to Canada, Mexico and a few other places near the US (Caribbean and Central America).

The Chinese embassy does not say anything about transiting to a different Shanghai airport:
(Bolding mine)
http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/hzqz/zgqz/t84242.htm

Here is a FT thread on it too: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...e-transit.html

Really glad that I found this thread. I have to travel to HKG and main land China for work. I will be living in HKG for 3 months, my employer will be applying for a multiple entry visa to China in HKG, not in the USA. My family will be moving out with me to HKG as well, my employer advised me to apply for their visas in HKG. I thought you had to apply for a Chinese visa in the USA only. Which one is true?

Thanks

IMO you need to read the rules yourself very carefully. It might be faster and cheaper to obtain a visa for China in Hong Kong. However, typical rules (I haven't checked in this case--you need to do the research yourself) say that one must apply for visas either from one's country of citizenship or one's country of permanent residence. It probably depends on whether you and your family will be considered official "permanent" residents (and have received all of the documents to this effect) by the time you need the visa.

However, as others have mentioned in this thread, multientry visas for China (assuming US citizen) are now (post-Olympics) relatively easy to get (especially if you previously have had a visa for China), although no China visa is cheap for a US citizen. The main hassle is that you must either apply in person or use a visa agency.

There are a few visa agencies in Hong Kong that can get you a visa to mainland China. I recall one in Central on Queens but I would have to look up the cross street.

The cost is a bit higher than in the US but they can accommodate applicants in 24 hrs. That sure beats having to fly back to Houston/Chicago/etc.

my gf used www.visahq.com for this past summer. You can submit application online and mail them your passport. They have online updates to show you which stage in the process your application is on in terms of receipt of passport, submission, etc. She had applied for single entry visa but received multiple entries visa instead which would normally cost more and require a letter of explanation. Not sure if that happens to everyone who applies through them or was just an unexpected bonus. She chose 3 bus. day processing and got passport back within a week or so.

yes
 

you need visas for China.

also, to pluralize a word, all you need to do is add an s. Sometimes an es. NEVER an 's.

I also wanted to add that you don't need to be transiting to a different airport, as I flew into and out of PVG.

Who told you this nonsense?

You are right, they changed the verbiage, OTOH I just checked Timatic and there is no such mention of any such visa for Shanghai (there used to be) but it now seems that Hangzhou has opened up a little bit more............

That's what I see on TIMATIC (courtesy of delta.com). But, let me tell you what I've observed over during the course of my China related career:

-iirc, the 48 hour deal in SH was introduced on 10/1/99 (National Day), or close to it, in conjunction with the opening of Pudong Airport. Reading between the lines, I'm guessing there was some sort of push to bolster the new airport's status as a regional hub.
-back then, and until fairly recently, all international flights were operated from PVG. Therefore, the idea of forcing people to switch airports in order to avail of the 48 hour stay opportunity would have been completely impossible. Even now, the list of international destinations from Hongqiao is less than 10 in length.
-Visa free transit at other airports started around the same time (I think). As CA, CZ, and MU expanded, they pursued markets such as Europe-Australia and USA-SE Asia. Since airside transit was impossible back then, they wouldn't have been able to get many passengers if a Chinese visa was a requirement.
-I've never availed of visa free transit myself because I always have a PRC visa, but it's a pretty neat program.... a nice opportunity to include a (very) short visit to China on your next award trip.

Somewhat off topic, I was just checking out the wiki on this subject and noticed that citizens of San Marino (a country I've barely heard of) are allowed to stay in China for 90 days at a time without visas. Does anybody know why?

And to complicate things further (or make them easier, which is how we look at it!), if you enter China via Tibet, all the rules change! The quick google-found website below matches the information received by our tour operator.

We're going to Kathmandu and overland (via Everest base camp!) to Llhasa and then via the Tibetan railway into mainland China.