Answered by Borut | Apr. 21, 2023 08:55
You should be just a bit creative and you will be able to perform your trip without a visa.
So, since 144 hour visa free transit is quite simple and it requires that your immediate points before and after your destination in mainland China have to be in different geographical entities (Macau, Taiwan and Hong Kong are valid as eligible entities), you can create your itinerary to look like:
Washington - Beijing - Hong Kong - Washington
As you can see you have a scheme called A - B - C where a mainland China is B. Please, have in mind that only the immediate points before and after count. Everything before and after is irrelevant.
You can create your itinerary in different way by buying two return tickets:
Washington - Beijing - Washington
Beijing - Hong Kong - Beijing
So your itinerary will be:
Washington - Beijing - Hong Kong - Beijing - Washington
In this way, you can enjoy 144 hour visa free transit in Beijing twice. Also, both airports in Beijing are available for use in this regard.