For an 8-month period, I find that 8300 number surprisingly low. Though I'm willing to believe that for the first 4 months of the year, very few people used 72-hour TWOV due to lack of knowledge and low travel period in general. Let's assume 4 "meaty" travel months May-August at guesstimate 8000 people going through (assume the other 300 in Jan-Apr)---that's 2000 per month or 67 per average day, or 3-4 per average hour (assuming an 18 hour daily period and discounting the wee hours). Will be interesting to see the final 2013 numbers and also 2014. Also Beijing's numbers.

I would assume every occurrence counted as a separate TWOV tally, even if one person used TWOV on multiple occasions.

We are purchasing a ticket on AA - ORD - PVG then we have a return from SIN - NRT - LAX. I have an award ticket from PVG - SIN on UA giving us just under 72 hours in Shanghai.

I can see from the conversation here that the alliances do not matter. I have the following two questions:

Can we TWOV even though we are not returning to Shanghai? I believe so but I cannot seem to confirm.

Second, do we need to stay in the city of Shanghai? I thought about going to Suzhou or Nanjing for the day.

I actually don't think that you do (the BJ policy is the only one that seems to really belabor this point). I recall seeing a description of the SH policy that spoke of Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu as acceptable (you would be good under this, if applicable), but during recent years, I haven't noticed such a clause at all. Though it is clear that you must depart from one of Shanghai's airports on an international flight.

When I did my TWOV at PVG, the immigration official apparently didn't recognize the new name of the former St Regis in Pudong. He questioned me about whether the hotel was in Shanghai, only becoming satisfied when I said that it was within a few blocks of the Century Avenue metro station. There could also be an issue when the hotel looks at your passport at check in or tries to register it.

Unless something goes drastically wrong, a day trip outside of Shanghai would seem to be OK, even if it might technically be against the rules.

Yes.

Yes, you need to stay in the municipality of Shanghai. This is in the 72 hour regulation and it applies to Shanghai as well as Beijing, and now Guangzhou, etc. But nobody's going to get upset if you daytrip to Suzhou or Nanjing then return to somewhere in Shanghai municipality. Can you get away with staying somewhere else overnight like Suzhou or Nanjing on TWOV? Maybe or maybe not, just depends on how the non-Shanghai hotel wants to play it when they see you have no visa at check-in. Remember they are required to send your information to the PSB at check-in, including visa number. Maybe they will refuse, or maybe they send and the PSB catch and pay you a visit (unlikely) or maybe they electronically red flag it so when you exit at PVG, you get extra time discussing with Immigration.

Like I said before, I can't recall ever seeing this in any of the printed legislation (Chinese or English), except for when 48 hour TWOV was introduced in Shanghai, and then Jiangsu/Zhejiang (a massive area of land) were also covered.

While it makes logical sense to assume that the logic behind the Beijing policy extends to Shanghai, if the letter of the law doesn't prohibit leaving Shanghai, then you're not breaking the law by doing so.

Thank you for your help. I also found the visa page on the Chinese Embassy site in the US:

http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/visas/zgqz/t943855.htm

#4.1 seems to address the situation and does not refer to leaving any of the cities - just applying to stay in the city. I am unsure if we will have time to do so anyhow after looking at things to do in Shanghai. I may just email the embassy directly and ask. If I do I will post the reply here.

While I suppose those guys are due some props for updating their web content (for the first time in ~3 years), they did a really horrible job (e.g. they list Japan and Brunei as special with no mention of San Marino -- their true sweetheart, "must stay in the airport" language still in place, glossed over 72 hour TWOV, broken link towards the bottom of the text)!

Thanks for all the helpful posts!

I was hoping to plan a mr from SFO, LAX to PVG, and then back from PVG to LAX and SFO all on American Airlines. I was planning on being in Shanghai for less than 24hours without a visa, only a US passport.

What if I were to book a 4 hour layover as opposed to 24 hours? Would I still need a 3d country or 2nd airline?

Would I qualify for a TWOV flying to and from the same country, and on the same airline? Any help is greatly appreciated!

TWOV only applies to international transit scenarios; there are no exceptions.