China advice and visa question
 

I'm thinking of booking a OneWorld award for the spring of '09 and would like to include China. I definitely want to include Shanghai and HK and once I go through the hassle of getting the visa thought I might include some other spots. I've been to Xian, Beijing and Guilin so am looking for something different. Has anyone been to either Xiamen or Qingdao? Both are on the OneWorld map and sound fairly nice based on the Lonely Planet description. Any comments or other suggestions?

Now for the visa question. If I went to Qingdao, for example, I would fly from Japan to Qingdao, back to Japan and then to Shanghai. I would just be transiting in Japan but would I need a multiple entry visa for China? I assume that transiting through HK doesn't count as "leaving" China.

If I do need a multiple entry visa, are they difficult to obtain? As this won't be until the spring hopefully all of the Olympic-related visa difficulties will have passed.

You definitely need a multiple entry visa to accomplish what you described, and they are apparently pretty easy for Americans to obtain these days (in spite of the Olympic hype). A useful tip is to scribble in a second trip on your visa ap that's >6 months after your first trip. Also, be sure to make plane and hotel "reservations" (only for trip #1) and print them out for the guys at the consulate; this should only require 5 minutes of your time, but will make them happy.

If you leave the transit area of the airport, then it does count as leaving China. No visa required for Hong Kong. If you go back in to China, that counts as a re-entry, so double-entry or multiple-entry visa will be required.

multiple entry visas are impossible from UK now so i guess USA is similar. we are all expecting the regulations to be relaxed post olympics so I think you should be OK
regarding Qingdao and Xiamen, both are very nice. In the spring Xiamen weather is better, Qingdao may be a bit cool. Both have some of the best seafood in China
if I was travelling then on holiday I would consider Yunnan; scenery is amazing, the ethnic diversity is very interesting and, providing you go before the rainy season, the weather is great.

China Multiple Entry Visa
 

You should have no problem getting a muliple entry visa, but if you could go to Qingdao and Shanghai on the same trip the flight time is only 1:20 between these cities. Anytime you enter Hong Kong or Macau for example from China you are exiting China and then you will need either multiple entry visa or at least a double entry visa to reenter China. For those that work in China holding USA passports we can obtain either multiple entry visa valid for either one or two years. Each entry can have validity of 30 or 60 days per entry. Qingdao is a very nice city with usually cooler temperatures than Xiamen which is a smaller city, but with a lot more humidity. Excellent sea food in both cities. The sailing venue for the Olympics will be held in Qingdao. Other nice cities to visit are Kunming in Yunnan Province and Dalian in Liaoning Province. Dalian is an hour flight from Qingdao and about three hours from Tokyo. Kunming is about 2 hours from Hong Kong.

Thanks everyone for your helpful responses. I will definitely go to Yunnan but I'd like to take several weeks there. I'd like to take the "back door" overland route to Sichuan (yes, I'm a glutton for long, uncomfortable bus rides!) If I don't do the OneWorld award I may do this in the spring instead. If I go with the award I thought it would be better to visit some cities /areas that would be interesting to see but wouldn't warrant more than a few days. Places I might not get to otherwise.

Someone mentioned Dalian. OneWorld goes there so I"ll take a look at that as a possibility. Trouble is that even though these cities may not be far apart, it looks like I"ll have to jump to HK or Japan between each if I'm using the award.

I"ll check back closer to the time and see what's happening with visas. Someone mentioned indicating that I have another trip planned w/in 6 months to ensure getting the multiple entry. How about just telling them the truth and including a copy of my intinerary? It will be obvious that I need multiple entry with multiple passes through Japan, no?

The second trip will make you a shoe-in for a 1-year visa and all 1-year visas are multi-entry. If you just show them your itin, you run the risk of being awarded 2 entries only, which could restrict your travel plans.