The immigration officer is there is review whether you're admissable to the country, and that includes all aspects of your entry.

The fact that you have a visa in your passport is just confirmation that you have satisfied some process that has been approved by an overseas consulate, and is effectively a green light for companies to transport you to China, and evidence that the immigration officer will take into account at the border. But an immigration officer can open a full investigation into whether your visa is valid, double check all the supporting evidence for that, require further clarification and interview you needed, and if deemed necessary cancel the visa in your passport and return you from whence you came.

Never underestimate the power of an immigration officer to ruin your plans.

(And this comment doesn't just apply to China)

And it doesn't just apply to visas either - it can apply to ETAs/ESTAs or ETA-less visa exempt.

We might speculate on the reason.
When I presented an Australian passport at YUL in Feb, I was grilled on my RTW itin. I think the CBSA officer was expecting a simple R/T.
I don't know whether your grilling was due to heightened tensions.

Flying in Tomorrow
 

Hi everyone,

As far as I know, there's only one form -- the Health Declaration form -- to fill out. Of course, I don't have a local contact, which the form requests (any suggestions? Just write my name and number again? Or, the first hotel info?)

I'm planning on leaving early the next morning to Zhengzhou from Beijing West. Looking forward to joining the mosh pit to buy tickets (do I need a local SIM to do so these days?) I used to go to those 代售处 agents to buy tickets, since there were never any queues. Are those still a thing?

Appreciate your potential advice,
3F

-I would NOT advise writing your own name/number a second time; I suppose your hotel name and number will be fine

-I think you can buy train tickets from ctrip using your email address (instead of a local phone number)
-and, I believe that 售票处 can still issue physical tickets on the spot
-of course, you'll probably want a local SIM if you're going to be in China for more than a few days, but that could probably wait until after you get to Zhengzhou

Buy rail tickets from trip.com They have a small surcharge but it should do the trick. Just make sure to enter your passport number correctly. You should not need the printed tickets - your passport is your ticket.

Thanks, moondog .

Given that I've only got a tourist visa, I'd just get the cheapest SIM. Do you reckon any ol' China Mobile in Zhengzhou would do?

Suppose the alternative is what was suggested below by (thanks to you, too) Palal . If all one needs is a passport (to serve as the ticket), that's intriguing, especially considering those 保安, err, "guards" by the station entrance might be confused when they try to check the ticket info.

From what I've read, high speed rail has gone fully paperless and there are no more printed tickets for "G" and "D" trains. You buy a ticket linked to your passport/ID number and scan your passport at the "manual" gate to enter the station/platform. I will try it out next month.

Lol I wrote myself as the local contact

Maybe I should have written down “I know moondog”

I've not filled out any Chinese forms in over a year; I just use a thick black marker pen and write "See Vincent" on every page. :)

China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom all work nicely in both Beijing and Zhengzhou (pretty much everywhere in China, actually, but I'll give Mobile an edge for really remote areas). And, their pricing is similar (cheap).

I don't think it really matters if you grab a SIM in Beijing or Zhengzhou. Definitely bring your passport; you should be able to use your hotel if they need a local address because you will be (PSB) registered with them.

Don't waste too much time planning the SIM card drill. Simply note where the bigger stores are when you plan your outings and try to slot in a visit.




​​​​​​

Sure, you can write in yourself, but I always try my best to make sure those guys have no conceivable reason to think/question at all (KISS doctrine). By way of example, in the TWOV thread, several posters recently asked for opinions about providing multiple hotels on the arrival form. This is something that you simply shouldn't do because it violates KISS. That immigration person isn't interested in your hotel hopping hobby (at all); his job is simply to make sure you filled in all required fields on the entry form.

​​​​​​
​​​​

Yes, this is correct. If you still need a printed ticket receipt this can collected from a machine or a ticket counter. It was the case though (at least when the new system started) that for the first trip using a given passport number it was necessary to go to a ticket counter to get the number activated/validated in their system. After that just showing scanning a passport at the gates should work.

I don't know if buying through Ctrip gets around this, but better to leave some extra time just in case if you go down this route. If you buy the train ticket through an agent with a "12306" terminal (the central trainticket booking system) this also takes care of the validation.

The whole verify-your-passport thing is confusing, and I'm still not sure exactly when it's required. But be aware that with everybody buying online or via machines, open ticket counters are few and waits can be long.

Also confusing are those gate scanners. Sometimes they work with a passport. Sometimes you're just hustled to the manual gate. Remember there's also a gate when you exit at the end of your trip.

(And etickets aren't limited to D and G trains. Most trains now use them.)

The only limitation of an unverified account is that you can't buy train tickets for Chinese ID holders. You can however buy tickets for up to five passport holder (including Chinese nationals).
So verification is only necessary if you need to buy tickets for lots of people, and in particular, Chinese nationals without passports.

No, verification beforehand is necessary if you plan to buy more than three tickets for yourself. You'll find the app won't let you reserve a fourth ticket until after you've gone to the ticket office and your status changes to verified.