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Asked by Jen from usa | Nov. 10, 2019 20:11
About:240-Hour Visa-Free Transit in Guangdong

144 hour transit visa acceptable if I depart Guangzhou by high speed train?

I will go to Guangzhou in December. My itinerary is Taipei>Guangzhou Airport (CAN)>Hong Kong.

I will go to Hong Kong via high speed train, Guangzhou East station to Hong Kong Hung Hom station.

If I book the train ticket online, I will have email confirmation but not the actual train tickets in hand when I check in for my flight in Taipei and when I land at Guangzhou airport.

My questions are:
1. Is the Guangzhou East airport an acceptable port of exit for the 144 hour transit visa?
2. Is having an email confirmation of the train tickets sufficient to board the flight/receive approval for the 144 hour transit visa when I land at Guangzhou airport?

Thank you!

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Answers (3)
Answered by Jenny | Nov. 12, 2019 09:40
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This is helpful, thank you!

I have a follow-up question.

To confirm, if I book through online service like this one, and get an email confirmation, I can show the email confirmation to the gate agent before boarding my flight in Taipei and to the Chinese immigration officer upon arrival in Guangzhou to get my TWOV visa?

Also, why do I have to get the tickets delivered to my hotel in Guangzhou? Can I just use my passport and email confirmation to get the train tickets when I arrive at the train station on the day of travel?
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Answered by ZUPAN | Nov. 11, 2019 14:14
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Here are the answers:

1. Yes, Guangzhou East is eligible as a port of exit when traveling on 144 hour TWOV. I have seen that you have properly understood that you can travel between Guangzhou East and Hong Kong Hung Hom and in reality this is the only train option that is eligible, but this is not a high speed, but a conventional train that takes just a bit less than 2 hours to cover the journey. Anyway, I consider it also, just fine.

2. Yes, an email e-confirmation of the ticket is enough to be allowed to perform your 144 hour TWOV itinerary. Anyway, here you have to know several details:

- You cannot book this ticket through MTR website because they don't insert the name of the traveler on their e-confirmation and that is necessary to be eligible. So, the imperative is to book this ticket through several other websites, in reality agencies that will insert your name on the e-confirmation. One of such websites is exactly this one - TravelChinaGuide and you can see a link for trains in the upper part of the site
- You have to book your train ticket at least 7 - 8 days before your planned departure by train to allow enough time for the agency to deliver the real paper ticket to your accommodation in Guangzhou.
- You will have to offer an address of your accommodation at the time of train ticket booking, so that the agency delivers the ticket to the right place. In other words, you will have to have your accommodation booked in advance at least for the first overnight.
- When booking this ticket, you will be charged 70 CNY above the ticket price as a service fee.

I hope this helps :)
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Answered by ZUPAN | Nov. 12, 2019 14:21
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You are correct on your first answer. I will just correct you in one detail. To be allowed to travel on 144 hour visa free transit, you must show this e-confirmation both in Taipei and in Guangzhou at 144 hour visa free transit counter, immediately upon your landing.

Your second question is logical, but you cannot do that because the agencies are simply not functioning like this. In other and plain words, they want to make some commission from abroad purchases, especially for the train tickets that have international appearance as is in your case.
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