The China 240-hour visa-free transit policy(240小时过境免签, 240 xiǎoshí guòjìng miǎnqiān) lets holders of 55 passports— including the United States, United Kingdom and Canada — enter mainland China for up to 10 days without a visa, provided they arrive at one of 65 approved ports, hold an onward ticket to a third country or region, and stay within the 24 eligible provinces. This is the practical 2026 guide — the rules that actually get you through the counter, and the mistakes that send you back.

What is the China 240-hour transit visa?

The 240-hour visa-free transit is a stamp issued at the immigration counter on arrival that lets eligible foreigners stay in mainland China for up to 240 hours (10 days) while transiting to a third country or region. It is not a tourist visa, it cannot be applied for in advance, and it does not permit study, employment or return to your country of origin without leaving the mainland first.

The current policy was announced by China's National Immigration Administration on 17 December 2024, replacing the older 72-hour and 144-hour transit schemes with a single, longer 240-hour stamp. The June 2025 update added Indonesia (bringing the country list to 55). The November 2025 update raised the number of eligible ports of entry to 65, adding several rail and land crossings around the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Greater Bay Area (see the National Immigration Administration announcement).

The key differences from the old 72/144-hour rules:

• Stay length: 240 hours (10 days), up from 72 or 144.
• Geographic scope: 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities — you can now fly Beijing → Shanghai → Chengdu inside one transit. Under the old rules you were pinned to a single city or a small cluster.
• Ports of entry: 65 (was 39). Includes small regional airports, cruise terminals and rail stations, not just international hubs.
• Eligibility: 55 nationalities (up from 54 with the Indonesia addition).

What it does notdo: (a) let you enter, stay 10 days, then fly home to your origin country — the onward ticket has to be to a thirdcountry or region; (b) cover Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Gansu or Ningxia — those provinces are outside the 24 eligible regions; (c) work at land borders that are not on the port list. Yiwu (义乌), for example, is a major business city but not a visa-free port — you will need a full L visa to enter there.

Who qualifies? The 55 eligible passports in 2026

As of August 2026, citizens of 55 countries hold ordinary passports eligible for the 240-hour transit policy. The list runs Europe-heavy (40 countries), with all major English-speaking economies except New Zealand's neighbours in the Pacific. Diplomatic and service passports have separate rules — this list is for ordinary passports only, with at least 3 months remaining validity.

Verify at en.nia.gov.cn or your local Chinese embassy before you fly — the list has been expanded twice in the last 18 months and is likely to grow again. If your nationality is not on this list, you need a full L (tourist) or M (business) visa applied for at a Chinese visa center before departure.

The third-country rule explained — this is what trips people up

The single most misunderstood rule of the 240-hour transit visa is the third-country onward ticket. Your entry country and your exit country cannot be the same. If you fly London → Beijing → London, you fail. If you fly London → Beijing → Tokyo, you pass.

In practice this is what officers check at the counter:

• You entered from Country A (whatever appeared on your inbound flight manifest).
• Your onward ticket must depart mainland China to Country/Region C, where C is different from A.
• The onward departure date/time must fall inside the 240-hour window from your first minute in China.
• The onward ticket must be confirmed (not on-hold, not a “dummy” PDF) — a real PNR they can look up.

Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan all count as third regions. This is the piece most travelers miss. A San Francisco → Shanghai → Hong Kong itinerary is a legitimate 240-hour transit even though you never leave the greater China region. Bangkok → Chengdu → Taipei works. New York → Beijing → Macau works. This is the cheapest way for many travelers to legally see mainland China without paying for a full L visa — book a cheap onward hop to Hong Kong at the end of your 10 days, fly out from there.

What does not work:

• Round-trip to the same country: Toronto → Beijing → Toronto. Fails. This is not a transit; it is a visit, and you need an L visa.
• Onward outside the 10-day window: an onward ticket dated 11 days out will be rejected at check-in by your airline.
• Domestic mainland ticket as your “onward”: a Beijing → Shanghai flight does not count. The onward has to leave mainland China.

The 65 eligible ports of entry

As of the November 2025 expansion there are 65 approved ports of entry for the 240-hour visa-free transit policy — airports, cruise terminals, and rail crossings. The table below covers the airports most travelers actually use. For the full list including cruise ports and rail crossings, check the NIA official site before you book.

The November 2025 expansion also added rail crossings including West Kowloon Stationon the Guangzhou–Shenzhen– Hong Kong Express Rail Link, plus the Hong Kong–Zhuhai– Macao Bridge crossing at Zhuhai — useful if you want to enter mainland China by train from Hong Kong on a 240-hour transit.

The 24 provinces you can visit

Once stamped in at an eligible port, you can move freely within 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities for the full 240 hours. The 2024 expansion added five regions to the original 19 (Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hainan, Guizhou), making cross-country routes like Beijing → Xi'an → Chengdu → Guangzhou feasible inside one visit.

Regions that are notcovered: Tibet Autonomous Region (西藏), Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (新疆), Qinghai (青海), Gansu (甘肃), Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (宁夏), Inner Mongolia (内蒙古) and Jilin (吉林). If your itinerary involves any of these — a Silk Road trip, Kashgar, Lhasa, Dunhuang — the 240-hour transit will not cover you and you need a full tourist visa.

Step-by-step: how to actually use the 240-hour transit

The application is done at the immigration counter on arrival — there is no online form, no advance registration and no fee. The process, in the order it actually happens:

1. Before you book. Confirm your nationality is on the 55-country list, and that your onward departure is to a country or region other than the one you flew in from. Book a real, confirmed onward ticket (not a placeholder or hold) with a departure date/time inside 240 hours of your arrival. Pick a port on the 65-city list.

2. At check-in for the inbound flight. The airline is legally responsible for confirming you have valid entry to China. Show the check-in agent your passport, your inbound boarding pass and your onward ticket to the third country. If the agent does not know about the 240-hour policy, ask them to check the IATA TIMATIC entry — airlines have been trained on this rule since December 2024, but frontline staff at smaller airports can still be unclear. Do not let an untrained agent turn you away — ask for a supervisor.

3. On arrival, at immigration. Do NOT queue in the general foreigners line. Look for the counter marked “Foreigners: 24 / 72 / 144 / 240-hour Transit Visa-Free” (外国人过境免签). At major ports (PEK, PKX, PVG, SHA, CAN, SZX, CTU) this counter is clearly signed in English. At smaller ports you may need to ask staff and be directed to a side counter.

4. Fill in the arrival card.There are self-service kiosks in the immigration hall before you reach the counter — scan your passport, tap your inbound flight number, tap your onward flight number, enter your mainland China address. The kiosk prints an arrival card you hand to the officer.

5. At the counter. The officer will scan your passport, look up your onward ticket in the airline system, and stamp your passport with a “Temporary Stay Permit” (临时入境, línshí rùjìng). The stamp shows your entry timestamp and your deadline — count from that timestamp, not from midnight. Total time at the counter: typically 5–10 minutes if you have the paperwork ready.

6. Within 24 hours: register your address.If you are staying at a hotel, the front desk registers you automatically at check-in via their PMS — you do not need to do anything. If you are staying at a private address (Airbnb, friend's apartment) you must go in person to the nearest police station (派出所, pài chŭ suǒ) with your passport and register within 24 hours. Skipping this is technically a violation and can trigger fines on exit.

7. During your stay.Keep a photo of your stamp on your phone — hotels, high-speed rail ticket counters and some museums may ask for it. Do not overstay the deadline. Do not cross into the seven excluded regions.

8. Departure. Leave through any Chinese port, not necessarily the same one you entered through. You can enter at PEK and leave from Shanghai PVG, Guangzhou CAN or Chengdu CTU. As long as your exit is before your 240-hour deadline and goes to the pre-declared third country/region (or another one accepted by the airline), you are clear.

Common gotchas and how to fix them

The 240-hour transit is generous, but the failure modes are consistent. Every one of the below has happened to real travelers in the past 12 months.

• Booking a round-trip instead of an open-jaw: fixes by rebooking as one-way in + separate one-way onward to Hong Kong, Bangkok, Seoul, Tokyo — anywhere outside your origin.
• Arriving at a non-eligible port: Yiwu (YIW), Wenzhou (WNZ) and several smaller regional airports are outside the 65-port list. Verify before booking — if in doubt, connect through Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou or Chengdu.
• No confirmed hotel booking: not always asked, but when it is, a hotel confirmation email opened on your phone is enough. Book at least the first night before you fly.
• Onward ticket to origin country via connection: a Toronto → Beijing → Vancouver ticket still fails — both origin and destination are Canada. Connect through a different country instead.
• Overstay because of flight delay: contact the local Public Security Bureau Exit-Entry office before your deadline expires. Weather and airline-caused delays are usually granted a short extension. Not calling and just showing up late is what triggers the fine.
• Wrong queue at immigration: the general foreigners queue moves slower and some officers will refuse to process a 240-hour transit there. Look specifically for the transit visa-free counter.
• Airline check-in refuses you at origin: sadly common with newer or lesser-known airlines. Bring a printed copy of the NIA policy announcement in Chinese and English, and ask the check-in agent to escalate to a supervisor. Your onward ticket + passport + eligible port is all they need to see.

240-hour transit vs regular tourist visa — which do you need?

For most short trips (up to 10 days) that can be structured with a real onward hop to a third country/region, the 240-hour transit is strictly better: it is free, requires no advance application, and involves no visa center appointment. The catch is real logistical planning around the onward ticket. Use this decision guide:

For US, UK and Canadian passport holders specifically, the L visa currently costs around US$140/£151/C$142 (single-entry, 2026) with visa-center service fees on top, and takes 4–6 weeks door-to-door with mandatory in-person biometrics. Adding a $60 Cathay Pacific hop from Shanghai to Hong Kong to unlock the free 240-hour transit is the cheaper move if 10 days is enough.

Staying connected on a 10-day China transit

Ten days is enough to actually see China — but the moment you step out of the terminal you need to be online. Metro apps take QR boarding, taxis are DiDi (滴滴) not street-hail, restaurant menus are Alipay mini-programs, and the Forbidden City sells tickets only via WeChat. The problem is Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, Gmail, ChatGPT and most of the Western internet are blocked on any SIM sold inside mainland China — that includes China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom and every airport SIM booth.

The way through this without a VPN is a home-routed travel eSIM. Your device connects to China Unicom or China Mobile 5G on the ground, but the data tunnel exits mainland China through Hong Kong or Singapore — from the internet's point of view you are browsing from outside the Great Firewall. Google Maps, WhatsApp, Gmail, Instagram, ChatGPT and Slack all load normally. No VPN app to install, no captive portal to authorize, no risk of the VPN being blocked halfway through your trip.

The other benefit of activating before you fly: you land already online. No queuing at the SIM booth in PEK arrivals with jet lag, no showing your passport to a China Mobile agent, no worrying whether your bank's SMS 2FA will reach a Chinese number. See our best eSIM for China guide for the price comparison, plan sizes, and how home-routing actually works under the hood.

Frequently asked questions

Where to go from here in your China trip

If you are planning around the 240-hour window, these are the guides most people read next:

• China Travel Guide 2026 — the overall country guide: visa, payments, trains, eSIM.
• China Travel Guide for Americans 2026 — US-passport specifics, ESTA parallels, TSA-to-CAAC gotchas.
• China Travel Guide for Brits 2026 — UK passport specifics, gov.uk advice and BA/Cathay routing.
• China Travel Guide for Canadians 2026 — Canadian passport specifics, Air Canada routing and consular notes.
• Beijing Travel Guide 2026 — Forbidden City, Mutianyu, the subway, Peking duck.
• Shanghai Travel Guide 2026 — the Bund, Pudong, the maglev and PVG airport transfer.
• Chengdu Travel Guide 2026 — pandas, hotpot, and Sichuan as a transit hub.
• Chongqing Travel Guide 2026 — the cyberpunk megacity on the Yangtze.
• Best eSIM for China 2026 — the connectivity guide, with home-routing explained.

Sources

• National Immigration Administration — China's Visa-Free Transit Policy Fully Relaxed and Optimized (December 2024)
• National Immigration Administration — China Extends 240-hour Visa-Free Transit Policy Coverage to 55 Countries (Indonesia added, June 2025)
• Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States — 240-hour Visa-Free Transit Policy notice
• Consulate General of the PRC in New York — Visa-Free Transit Policy Fully Relaxed and Optimized (English)
• US Department of State — China International Travel Information
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office — Foreign travel advice: China — entry requirements
• Government of Canada — Travel advice and advisories for China
• China Southern Airlines — China's 240-Hour Visa-Free Transit Policy (airline operational summary)

Photo credits

• Shanghai Pudong International Airport T2 — Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Beijing Capital International Airport T3 — Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Pudong night skyline from the Bund — Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Forbidden City Beijing Shenwumen Gate — Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Great Wall of China at Jinshanling — Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 4.0

Bottom line

For US, UK and Canadian passport holders in 2026, the 240-hour visa-free transit is the cheapest and fastest way into mainland China — provided you can structure the trip with a real onward ticket to a third country or region (Hong Kong and Macau both count). Enter at any of the 65 approved ports, move within 24 provinces for up to 10 days, register with the local police within 24 hours of arrival, and activate a home-routed China eSIM before you fly so you land already on Google Maps and WhatsApp. Save the visa center trip for a longer or Silk Road itinerary where the transit rules don't apply.