For the info of Brits, all requests for an L visa in the UK will get a 2-year multi-entry with 90 days entry, unless you request otherwise. AFAIK applying outside the UK is still max 2 entries.

Cost is £85 (+ agent fee, for visaforchina it's £55 +vat, so total £151). Visaforchina have swanky new offices in Manchester near Chinatown, very efficient - my Greggs pasty didn't even go cold.

Yup, I was only offered single or double when applying in the US. However they fortunately don't charge the reciprocal fees, and if you go to the consulate you avoid any agency fees - which I don't think is possible in the UK - so overall $30 for my single entry.

I'd vaguely consider applying in the UK if I had regular travel though in order to save passport space - probably doable if you have friends and are able/willing to let go of your passport for a few weeks (i.e. courier it directly to the visa center, give them a friends address for the return, get your friend to courier it back to you)?

Yes you can do this if you trust Fedex. My girlfriend did this when she needed to apply in her country of residence (Australia) while living in Canada and her Canadian PR was still pending. It worked out fine.

Same Day Visa Pick Up
 

My friend and I are traveling to China in January and we need to get our Visas for the quick 4 day trip. It's about a 3 hour drive to the closest consulate. Is is possible to drop it off first thing in the morning and get it the same day for the $30 rush fee? We'd prefer not to make a 2nd trip down and miss more work.

Pretty sure 1-day "emergency service" is not going to happen since you don't need to travel that quickly. And some Consulates aren't offering it anymore (and $30 seems too low). What you should be able to do, is provide a prepaid, self-addressed Express Mail or FedEx envelope, for the Consulate to send your finished passports back to you. They won't accept incoming mail applications, but I believe most still will mail back to you--just use something with a tracking service. Alternatively, if you have a friend closer to the Consulate, they could pick up the finished passports for you, and send on to you. Or you and friend split the duties--one of you drop off both applications, the other picks up. That way nobody misses more than one (part) day of work. There is no requirement that both of you need to show up for drop-off/pick-up. Your final option is to use a visa agent, who will charge service fees. But it may still be more economical for you to use the agent, vs paying for fuel, parking, and lost time at work for two trips.

I am a New Zealand citizen, applying in Wellington, NZ for a Chinese Visa next year. We have flights to Shanghai and are going to travel overland and exit from Xijang to Kyrgstan. We don't need a Kyrgistan visa and the border crossing is done via taxies or maybe a bus.

So I have 2 issues:
1) no return or onward flight tichet (though we'll probably have a treturn from Istanbul to Asia - about 3 months after arriving in Shanghai - would that help)
2) travelling to the sensitive Xijang area - should we mention it on our itinerary.

I can easily invent hotel bookings on booking.com but I'm really not sure what to do with the onward travel thing
- do I put in a "real" itinerary and say we will exit over land within 30 days
- or pretend to do a "normal" itinerary.

i've heard talk of fully refundable fares - but I'm struggling to find any that don't have substantial fees attached. Can anyone recommend an airline or destination (I know it doesnt have to be back to NZ - but I also want to avoid contries would would require a visa)

Can you just book on an airline that allows you to cancel within 24 hours? I.e. book ticket, print itinerary, cancel - the money will probably never even leave your credit card (modulo a hold that will persist for a few days).

1) Itinerary: You must not mention Xinjiang or anything about your true exit plan. You'll need to "re-invent" an alternative route that avoids this, sticks to the eastern half of China, and ends up at a bogus exit point. Make the re-invented alternate equivalent in time to your true plans, so you end up with enough visa time, especially if you think you need over 30 days inside the PRC.

2) Said bogus exit point will be a flight out. You can try what the above poster suggested. Expedia's USA site usually has 24 hour cancellation without penalty clause, but I don't know if your printout will have a true eticket number or just a reservation number. I have heard that the Embassy in New Zealand tends to examine supporting documents a bit more carefully than the missions in the USA do.

You may want to take another tack, and that is to just find a low-cost flight out of China to elsewhere in the region, and eat the cost. Some LCC options to look at (usually bookable on their own websites):
Spring Airlines (Shanghai-based, several regional destinations)
Scoot and Tiger Air (both Singapore-based)
Air Asia (KUL-based)

Most of the Asia-based mainline carriers--including those based in China--will have penalty fees for cancellation on most any booking class (deep discount may not allow cancellation with refund at all). You'll have to ferret around and see what makes the most sense. The cheap throwaway ticket is a "cleaner" deal since you don't have to chase a refund. At any rate, I would figure out the exit ticket then backfill the imaginary itinerary to fit, along with bookings that support the imagination.

Once you get the visa, you are free to continue with your true plans. There's no backcheck against what you put on the application.

I have done this before on Qantas. From Sydney to Beijing return. I have done it regularly also on Air Canada.

Wow - I was told Central Asia was hard for visas - but they just want money - China is hte hard one! Spring Airlines is looking promising with dirt cheap hops to South Korea.

Unfortunately the cancel within 24 hours thing seems to be a US regulation - some of the Asians allow that on US routes. No such luck for us.

1.unticketed reservations are often good enough
2. people from other countries can buy (hold/cancel) tickets from the US to China

Thank you - it appears that expedia.com even has the 24 hour free cancel on flights not to/.from the US - problem solved

Some people in this situation book a FF award ticket if their status in the program permits free cancellation.

Want to check with frequent travelers if you have experience to board the plane with "TaiBaoZheng" (in English: Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan residents - MTP).

The new TaiBaoZheng (or the old version) has no english on it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainla...ts_(front).jpg

Will airline employees recognize TaiBaoZheng as a valid travel document and allow the holder to board the plane to China without a Visa?

I am holding a Home Returning Permit (HRP or HuiXiangZheng). I always transit in HK and present both my US passport and HRP when check in at the CX counter. The US passport is for exiting US and for entry in HKG (as far as CX is concerned, but I always enter HKG on my HKID). The HRP is for the connecting segment to Mainland China. I have never encountered a problem. I was told that airlines only scan passports and enter info and see from a third party system if I need a visa. I do not take a risk so I never fly direct to the Mainland, and enjoy several hours with friends in HK instead.

If you hold MTP, I suppose you can transit in TW to be safer?