Visa Free 72 Hour Transit

We (Myself, Wife & the 12 Year Old Daughter) are British Citizens (UK Passport Holders) have confirmed Air Tickets to travel to Colombo (Sri Lanka) via Beijing.

We will be leaving London and the Flight is due to arrive in Beijing at 23.40hours on a Friday and departure flight to Colombo is at 00:50 hours on Tueday Morning. We will be spending couple of weeks in Colombo before returning back to London.

As per above landing & departure times provided by the Air Line the Total duration in Beijing will be 73 hours & 10 Minutes. However practically we will be in Beijin for less than 72 hours because

1) Though the Flight Land at 23:40 we will not get to the Immigration Counter at least until 00:15 hrs on Saturday.

2) Though the departure flight to Colombo leave at 00:50 hrs on Tuesday we will get to the airport and pass the immigration desk latest by 22:00 hours on Monday evening.

Effectively this means we will be in Beijin for less than 70 hours and wonder whether we could make use of the Free 72 Hour Transit facility without having to undergo any hassell.

Could you please confirm that this is OK (given the above facts) and also advice whether we should be offically writing to any authorities in advance to inform this & seek approval. If so can you kindly provide the contact info (email etc).

We will in any case informing our airline of the above ,before we depart London in order to ensure that the Authorities are aware of this but would like to have additional "peace of mind" by informing & obtaining permission from the Immigration Authorities direct.

RG from UK

Many thnaks.