Effective 14/03/24, the visa-free countries expands to the following countries :

Autriche
Ireland
Suisse
Luxembourg
Hungary
Belgique

Amazing! That's brilliant news. I'm Swiss and I'm flying to Shanghai on March 17th. Was planning to do a Transfer Visa, but now I don't need to deal with that anymore, and with booking additional flights.

I have a business associate coming for a visit in early April. Since China hadn't released any dates when Switzerland visa-free entry was going to be actually launched since the announcement weeks ago, they just applied for an M visa on my recommendation.

Not being limited to (or having to think about) 15 days/stay is certainly of value.

But if it saves me the hassle of sending in my passport, a visa appointment and the money... a cheap round-trip out of country might be cheaper than that!

I was just almost denied boarding at Budapest Airport, Air China Check-In desk....because there Timatic system calculates immigration in China with todays date.

​​​​​I presented them with chinese embassy, Austrian goverment, Skyteam Online TIMATIC sources etc. but still the only reason why I was not denied boarding - like so many others have - was because on the same ticket I return from TPE via CKG to Budapest, starting on the 19th before midnight...therefore within 144 hours...

Lots of discussions with other passengers, some had to book a one-way flight out of CKG at the check-in counter...only afterwards they agreed to manually overwrite the denied boarding....like they did in my case.

Reminds me of the Youtube Qatar Airways Budapest almost denied boarding on the way to Shanghai. In Shanghai the two had no issued entering the country.

Keep us updated. GL!

Greetings from the Holiday Inn (by name only, not part of the chain) Chongqing.

I have been interviewed by chinese state television at immigration....I hope they do not put it on air, but I guess they might....because the camera was rolling even during the finger print process.

Of course the information provided by the Budapest Check In staff has been incorrect, it started at midnight and it seems that BUD-CKG is the first flight to land from Hungary, maybe even from Europe.

Chongqing was one of the easiest Airports to pass immigration, but according to the staff at the information desk they do not have an ATM to get some money....neither does the Hotel here.

The staff does not speak English. They were looking for a visa or TWOV stamp for ages....

Update: With the help and support of the Airport Enquiry Desk in the domestic terminal T2 we went to a few different bank branches near the Airport complex....including Bank of China. There is no ATM which accepts foreign cards at all. One can use it only to buy things in the Airport, but thats it.

Straying off topic, but Wechat and Alipay are the only way to easily pay for things in mainland China......there's a thread on that. Shoulda prepared for that in advance......

But once set up, it works easily 99% of the time and you get used to it. Quite convenient actually, I liked it.

Really?

The lady at the enquiry desk at T2 told me there is no ATM in the whole Airport.

Then she went with me, mind you for more than one hour, through the line 3/10, Exit 7 Underground Labyrinth (she even struggled with the help of her navigation-app) and we visited several bank branches together.

None of them, including the Bank of China branch, accepts VISA/Mastercard or foreign cards in general.

But I have Alipay/Wechat if necessary.

As already mentioned in the other thread moondog has been spot on with his suspicion regarding the ATM. There is at least one located on the 4th floor, Area 3J at T3.

Well, I guess the CCTV 13 report regarding the first ever visafree arrival of Hungarian citizens into China has also been broadcasted in Hungary.

If so good luck to the Air China staff in Budapest.

In all fairness in the row behind me onboard CA BUD-CKG was a hungarian journalist as well as a musician, who have also been informed/advised by the chinese embassy in Budapest that the visafree period starts only at 23:59 on the 14th, therefore they bought an express visa...the same argument the Air China staff supervisor used at the Airport.

Well, as it turned out to be an unlawful denied boarding EU261 comes into effect.

In Hungary, in some areas of the country, the price of a BUD-CKG return flight ticket equals one months salary.

Since they were on the plane (behind you), they weren't denied boarding, correct?

If they had been denied boarding, I'm guessing their EC261 claim wouldn't get very far (and none of the contingency based agents would touch it) because the airline could have simply claimed that it was acting upon its interpretation of the information it had at its disposal at the time.

Sorry for the confusion.

The powers to be made a hell of a lot of money for the last time until at least 30.11 with loads of last minute express visa as well as unnecessary tickets out of the country.

The two of them not, but many others have unlawful denied boarding.

In the meantime I got word through the grapevine so to speak that one, of many, reasons, that/why it started on the 14th was because of one the biggest national holidays in Hungary, which happens to be on the 15th March, lots of Hungarians use that time for their spring break holiday every year.

That was no coincidence, neither that the flights have been unusual cheap, even 48 hours before departure. I guess they planned a huge media event with lots of passengers, local politicians from Chongqing to showcast etc., but someone in Hungary did not get the memo.

Please correct if I am wrong moondog, but I guess they usually do not use the green desk for regular joe public immigration....it just happened to have more space for the camera guys.

The guy in front of me with a clear french accent was part of a bigger group from Belgium/Luxembourg, but he explained to the immigration officer that the others have diplomatic passports and therefore used another queue.

I had filed the 144 hour transit concept under the too difficult bucket so far, but this change might just be enough to get me booking.