djjaguar64

He is a Singaporean but since he is in high school my sister does not want him to venture out on his own. I am sure it would be nice to visit the city and try out the train.

moondog

Sometimes it's wise for children not to tell parents about all of their exploits.

jiejie

If your nephew is travelling on a Singapore passport, he doesn't need a visa at all. He gets 15 days freebie visa-less in China. He'll probably get a regular entry stamp rather than the special transit stamp, and there shouldn't be any immigration supervisors checking onward tickets or other issues that other nationalities might have.

If the nephew is at least 17 years old, and has a goodly long connection time, he should definitely at least ride the maglev. He can tell his mother about it in a few years.

karthik17

Is there any place to stay overnight @ PVG as my flight is at 1140AM and I am coming in on the last flight overnight from KIX. I assume from the above that I do not need a visa (as they will issue a temporary one).Or
IS is possible to go to a hotel nearby with their visa. (Visa Conditions Say You should not leave the airport) , I am a bit confused! Please help.

YuropFlyer

The 24hr/48hr transit Visa for certain nationalities does allow you to go anywhere in Shanghai - if you don't qualify for that one, either get a proper Visa, or you'll be in trouble afaik as transit (Not China-Not China) in PVG otherwise won't be possible as much I know.

Plenty of hotels near the airport, check in this very forum, got couple of threads about it.

dsquared37

My mom still tells me that!!!

Hage

I flew Fukuoka to Sydney return and my cheap tickets required transiting in Pudong, Shanghai. Out was a 4~5 hour wait in the airport, but back was an overnighter. I researched the Internet for information on my options regarding visas, transit procedure, and places to stay. Well, my research basically went round and round in circles. Many people posting advice were basically guessing formalities based on information that was unclear, different people at different times had had different experiences and the information was conflicting itself all over the place. I prefer not to take such advice as "You should be OK doing xyz". Not when facing the possibility of getting expelled or locked up. So I thought I'd come in here and share my experience for anyone in the future who may be interested.

First off, visa regulations can be found quite easily, such as at the Visa & Passport Information at delta.com. Basically, at this time, as a UK passport holder, I get 24 hours transit without needing a visa, while US folk get 48 hours. The Japanese (which includes my son) get 2 weeks… To cut a long story short, I didn't need to arrange anything at all before I went.

At Fukuoka the check-in clerk asked if I wanted my bags to go all the way to Sydney, and I said I did. Note that I flew the same airline (China Eastern) FUK-PVG-SYD. If you change airline I have no idea if that would make a difference. The clerk gave me a stick-on badge to wear at PVG to show I was transit, but I don't know who looked at it. (Aside: I printed seat plans of the planes from seatguru.com and used them to get decent seats at check-in. The FAQ at that website explains how to find out what kind of plane you'll be flying.)

Arriving at PVG we disembarked in the middle of the runway and everyone piled on a bus to the terminal. Then we went up an escalator and came to a counter with some kind of 'Transit' sign over it. At this point I didn't have a clue what we were meant to do (and after reading various travel forums, wasn't expecting to). At Fukuoka I'd been given boarding passes for both legs and I waved these at the clerk at this desk, but she said "No good" and pointed somewhere in the opposite direction, saying I should go to the first floor then up to the third floor. Err…OK…

Turning around, I saw the only way out of there was through immigration. There is NO airside departure lounge! Everyone was filling out Arrival-Departure forms and since, bar one or two people, they were all presumably Chinese, there was nothing clearly indicating they were in transit like me. There were a couple of airport staff sitting by an X-ray machine off in the corner, and I showed them my boarding passes and asked if I needed to complete a form. They said I did, so we duly filled them out (there is only one kind of card, so the part asking for my address in China or whatever I just marked 'Transit') and went to line up in the clearly marked Foreigner line.

That was no problem. My son's Japanese passport was a mere formality, but when it came to my passport she called someone over. Visions of Richard Gere jumping roofs in the movie Red Corner…but he just signed something in my passport and I was through. The officer told me to go down to the first floor. At least there was consistency as far as which floor I was meant to be on.

I remembered a forum post from someone who (at PVG) was expecting his luggage to go through to his final destination, but happened, by chance, to see it on the baggage carousel, so we went to the carousel to make sure ours hadn't been taken off. We had hours to kill.

Luggage-free, we then moved to the Transit Lounge - clearly labelled - next to the carousels. I was going to sit down and wait, but something made me show my boarding passes to the clerk sitting at a desk and asked what I should be doing. Unexpectedly, she opened a door near her desk and told me to go up to the third floor.

Up there we came to the check-in area. 1.3 billion Chinese, and most seemed to be checking-in. Flashing our boarding passes, I asked a uniformed what we should do, and thankfully he told us to go through to the necessary gate.

Eleven days later we left Sydney (SYD-PVG-FUK). I told the clerk we wanted to pick up our suitcases at Shanghai (as we had a hotel booked). The procedure at Shanghai was the same as before, except we had an address where we were staying in Shanghai to write on the Arrival-Departure form. We got through immigration easily. We picked up our luggage from the carousel and fumbled about trying to work out where the shuttle bus to our hotel was (Ramada Pudong AIrport Hotel). Coming back the next day we had to queue up at check-in with the other billion or so, but got through pretty quickly, and nothing of note happened.

Bit of an anti-climax really, after all the research I'd done and conflicting - or at least ambiguous - results. Bottom line is: make sure your passport is in order, expect to go through immigration with a completed form even for transit, and remember which floor you're on.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

Thanks for the update!

What you describe pretty much matches the excellent advice of our China forum regulars.

The only advice that differs seems to come from those that, as you say, guess about what the formalities might be.

jiejie

Not sure if you were able to look at this forum's FAQ Sticky, but the information there on Transit Without Visa is current and accurate, and definitely not guessing.

The "No Good" translates to "you can't go this way."

Correct. Chinese government policy currently requires that all international arrivals including transit passengers, must go through immigration and border control. This is also clearly in the FAQ and many posters on various China forum threads have attested to this. These procedures are not new.

Chinese officials aren't nearly as unreasonable or scary as the uninitiated seem to believe. Often junior officers manning an immigration desk will have a supervisor come over to do the sign-off for intl transit passengers--at airport terminals where there is no dedicated desk just for intl transit passengers. Not to worry.

Thanks for posting a very detailed post-mortem.

mnredfox

OP, thanks for the detailed post. We may have to add this to the visa thread somehow...

3544quebec

Thanks for a timely post. I have a transit from AA to MU flying ORD-PVG-SIN on different tickets in 4 weeks time with a 2hr 10min layover. Any ideas if this is cutting things too fine at PVG and if with an interline connection I will need to pick up luggage and recheck.Thanks

jiejie

If your arriving plane is on time, you should have enough time to make this connection, even assuming the worst--that you will have to pick up luggage and recheck. This isn't an interline problem, but one of PVG Airport Baggage policy. Go ahead and try to interline in ORD anyway all the way to SIN, but be prepared to check that PVG luggage belt to make sure your stuff isn't on it. I think the real issue is whether the AA check-in agent will let you board in ORD, as your ticket with them ends in China. With your onward MU ticket, you are perfectly OK to Transit Without Visa per the Chinese--but if you get a clueless ORD AA check-in agent, you might encounter a bit of a battle to convince them.

Hage

If you have to collect your luggage and check-in again don't hang around. Both times I was there there were long check-in queues. If things get close they'll call you out anyway. Or you can talk to one of the officers there. Everyone seemed to speak pretty good English.

3544quebec

Thanks jiejie and Hage. I appreciate the advice

AandT

Hi all,

Quick transit question... I have a friend who is looking to do the following-

HAN (Hanoi) -CAN-PVG on China Southern (CZ)with 1hr 40 minutes to connect in Shanghai PVG to a UA flight to the US.

I am concerned this is not really enough time, any thoughts?

My understanding is that he would need to clear entry/customs formalities in CAN and then essentially a domestic flight into PVG. He would then need to claim baggage, walk from T1 to T2 (takes about 10 min?) and recheck with UA for the onward travel. UA suggests you be at check in 3 hrs before travel, does anyone know what the cut-off time is? Is it 90 min? 60 min?

Is it possible that he can go as a transit passenger and not have to recheck? In the past I have always had to re-check in, but has this changed?

Thanks!