Am I eligible for the 24 hour free transit visa?

Ju, if you have correctly presented your flight itinerary, you are definitely eligible for 24 hour visa free transit and you don't need any kind of visa. Your entire transit time in China will be 22 hours and 20 minutes and that is less than 24 hours. Great.

You will print out your flight tickets and have those printouts with you. Also, you will declare at check-in in Helsinki that you will travel to the Philippines via China using 24 hour visa free transit. After a check of your tickets, you will be allowed to board the plane. During your check-in, you will inform yourself whether your luggage will be tagged to Chengdu or Guangzhou. It is very hard to predict this detail because it depends on airline and also on airport policies, so try to be informed in the best way possible.

Upon your arrival in Chengdu, you will approach 24 hour visa free transit counter where you will apply for a temporary entry permit to be allowed to proceed with your journey because your next flight will be a domestic one. Also, if you will have to, you will collect your luggage and perform a recheck for your flight to Guangzhou. Just be very fast to accomplish everything on time. The good thing is that you, I assume, have a single (through) ticket all the way to Guangzhou, so Sichuan Airlines will definitely help you to catch your flight to Guangzhou.

Upon your arrival in Guangzhou, you will be free to exit the airport and to explore the city for some time, but be careful to return at the airport for your flight to the Philippines :) Also, I assume, that you will take some other airlines from Guangzhou to the Philippines, so you will have to collect your luggage and perform new check-in for your final flight, probably by Cebu Pacific.

I am a PH passport holder and have the same situation. From Manila via Air Asia, I have 2 stops - Ghuangzu 2.5 layover and Chengdu with 7hrs 40mins layover then fly to Saint Petersburg. That was for Dec 26 flight. But AirAsia did not even allowed me to check-in saying I need transit Visa.
I mentioned about the TWOV and they took a screenshot of my itinerary and went back saying as per their contact in the Ghuangzu Immigration, that I am allowed ONLY IF I DO 1 STOP (CAN) and from there fly straight to LED.
It was frustrating since I mentioned all researched I did, showed the websites and even that of China Embassy's.
Bottom line, I missed the flight (note that I was at the airport 6hrs before boarding. Boarding pass printed and all). Cancelled the entire trip including hotel that I have already paid for.
As of this writing, I am on my way to China Embassy, not to file a complain rather to validate what Air Asia is saying. And if proven that they made a mess, I will file a complain and ask for refund with Air Asia. They even mentioned that all the websites I showed are not reliable as their contact is someone from Ghuangzu Immigration. So it will be between their contact and mine which is the China Embassy at World Trade - who handles all visa application.

Will keep everyone posted so we'd know the real deal. And for people to AVOID AirAsia as I didn't even go as far as immigration. They decided onset.
Also, I have all documents with me.

Hi, not sure if it's the same with coming FROM Helsinki vs coming from Philippines.
But this is in response to your question and update from my previous post.
I just went to China Embassy and after asking for their validation after having been denied by Air Asia to check in UNLESS I book for a different flight having just 1 stop in China, they asked to see my itinerary and response was:
" You need to apply for multiple entry because you have more than 1 stop."
I mentioned about the 24HrR TWOV and that they confirmed - if within 24hrs but does not apply if there are multiple stops. There is also fee involved. Not sure if this applies if done in other countries but at least here in PH, "rush" is released the following day for Php3,800.00 while regular process is 5-7 days for Php 2,100.

Hope this helps. I am responding simply because I personally experienced having to cancel the entire holiday only because I failed to complete requirements. I have time to work on it, had I known. So now, with the extra time I have, I will instead use it working on refunds and all. I hope others will not have to go through the same.

So, in this case I still need to apply for a multiple entry visa for China?

Hello Zupan thanks for your reply, so I am eligible for the 24 hour free transit visa even if I have two stops in China which are Chengdu and Shenzhen then to Phil. Do they emplement same rule either you're coming from Phil or Helsinki? And I am a Phil passport holder? Coz I've read from the other traveller that they were not able to fly because they needed a Chinese visa since they have two stops from Phil to Chengdu then Shenzhen to St. Petesburg? And they have less than 24 hours too. Why is that so?

Yes. While you have time but I am not familiar with the process if you will be coming from Helsinki. Best to go to China Embassy or perhaps seek help from any available travel agency there. Or you may want to go apply online.
I am sharing my experience and hoping others not to go through the same. I know better now.
What happened was a waste of money, time and hassle. Not to mention, stress I got from all that.
Even if I get my refund, it won't be 100% anymore. Hotel and the airfare - first leg of my trip were already non refundable. So I am just hoping my return ticket to be refunded. I didn't book direct to the airline so I have to wait longer than I should.

Good luck. It better to be safe than sorry. Just keep in mind that if you need to pay for a certain fee, that is way cheaper compared to you losing all what you have paid for already for your trip.
Keep us all posted.

And just to add, restrictions are not dependent on where you will be coming from, or ethnicity. It will depend on your passport. I am sharing the experience of a couple (same time I was in the airport dealing with my concern). - The guy is a Filipino but is now Canadian citizen. But his passport is PH. So he was not allowed to go as well.

Correction, I meant he is Canadian resident

Part one:

Unfortunately I realize that from time to time travelers are denied their rights to travel, although they fulfill all the requirements. As mentioned by Lheaaustria, the only one to blame in her case is Air Asia airport staff. If only they have opened Timatic, they would easily realize that all the requirements were met and that 24 hour visa free transit allows more than one stop. This is so clearly written in Timatic. Just for your example, you can open Timatic at Air New Zealand website and you will realize exactly that you were right to travel on your itinerary.

I can easily imagine that Air Asia airport staff is the lest trained staff at Manila airport along with Cebu Pacific because they are mostly dealing with "point to point" situations and when you have arrived with 24 hour visa free transit option and even more with two stops, they were simply lost. This and only this was the case that you were denied boarding. The ugliest thing is that they have lied that they have called Guangzhou immigration because they could not have received an answer of only one allowed stop. This is a nonsense. In reality, one stop only policy is valid when someone is using 72 or 144 hour visa free transit policy, but Philippine citizens are not eligible for such a visa free transit scheme, so everything does not make sense.

Part two:

Also, trying to get a reliable information from a Chinese diplomatic missions is wrong. They could or better to say, they should be better informed about visa free transit through their own country, but in reality they are not and they are in the most cases totally clueless about this subject. Frankly speaking, although they should be informed, it is true that visa free transit is not their jurisdiction at all. Visa free transit falls under the jurisdiction of the National Immigration Administration (国家移民管理局) while the diplomatic missions belong to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Also, asking a travel agency for assistance is wrong because they will always insist on a visa because of their commission.

The only, but really the only reliable official source that you can rely on is Timatic. Timatic is the most authoritative source of visa related subjects and within Timatic it is easy to find the real truth regarding visa free transit through China for all the citizens of this world. Of course, poorly trained Air Asia staff didn't make such an effort because they simply rely on repetitive routine of "point to point" travelers that usually have visas or if they are eligible for 72/144 hour visa free transit and belong to 53 eligible countries. Beside the mentioned, they are obviously clueless and further more, it clearly appears that they are lying about their conversation with Guangzhou immigration authorities. OK, maybe they were not lying, but I can assume that they did not understand each other.

It is so sad to hear that someone's plans are ruined by someone's ignorance and the lack of ability to use the primary tool called Timatic. Indeed, such an unfortunate situation.

Part three:

To conclude, Lheaaustria, you really have a good basis to sue Air Asia and to be compensated, although I perfectly understand that this could never be really compensated because there is nobody who can compensate that pain, loss of time and money and that feeling of hopelessness when you find yourself in front of an ignorant wall of human stupidity.

Lheaaustria, I just hope that you will decide to sue Air Asia for all the damage that was caused to you. This is so necessary because they will be otherwise causing a damage to other travelers, as you have already mentioned a couple of Philippine citizens living in Canada that were also denied boarding.

To offer a word of encouragement to Ju :)

Ju, your good circumstance is in the fact that you will be handled by airport staff that is well trained and also the good detail is that you will depart from Helsinki by a Chinese airline that has definitely trained their staff in Helsinki to understand the vary basics of visa free transit and similar subjects. Honestly speaking, I really don't expect any significant problems because everything is so clear in your situation. I confirm that you can approach a check-in in Helsinki with peace of mind. Anyway, I would also appreciate your feedback after you arrive home, just to present that this policy is really a functioning one and that the fault in the case of your compatriot Lheaaustria was on Air Asia airport staff.

The NIA is merely an umbrella organization and can only issue guidelines that may or may not be followed by airport immigration. Airport immigration offices are managed by either the municipal public security bureaus (aka local police) or the provincial People's Armed Police subsections (aka paramilitary police) so it is entirely within their jurisdiction to make adjustments to the prescribed directions published by NIA and they do this all the time without prior notification. The most infamous incident was when Pudong airport's immigration office began to request hotel reservations for 24-hour transit passengers intending to leave the airport WITHOUT WARNING on 1 February 2018, which caused many to sleep on airport benches instead. Overall I salute Lhea for her report and hope she will get some reprieve from airlines and hotels.