help clarifying 72 hr visa free requirement

Question

I read somewhere that the 'onward flight to another country' needs to be made on the same reservation/itinerary and not booked separately, can someone help clarify this?For example, I plan to travel to from LA to Beijing, spend 2 days in Beijing and then have a separate flight booked to Thailand , as this is my intended 'final destination'- does this qualify for the 72 hr visa free policy? thanks!!

CDKING · Answer

Separate tickets is allowed. Origin and Destination don't matter. What matters is the connecting airport immediately before and after Beijing are not China and are also not in the same country.You could even fly USA > Beijing on American Airlinesthen separate ticket: Japan Airlines from Beijing > USA with an hour connection in Japan and be eligible.

Kelly · Answer

Thank you for your response CDKING- just to clarify then, this article is incorrect then? It says that your flight to China and the onward country must be booked on the same itinerary- and not separate flights as I had planned to do. I realize it is not an official website or anything, it just made me very nervous about spending all this money on flights/hotels etc to maybe be denied entry to Beijing!

John Doe · Answer

A vast majority of travelers transiting through Mainland China do so on separate tickets so that article is obviously not correct, or 90+% of them would be refused entry already.

Help clarifying 72 hr visa free requirement

Related Questions: