24-Hour Visa-Free Transit

Part 1:

Anna, it is immediately visible that you perfectly understand the essence of 24 hour visa free transit.

Your first stay in China and your itinerary:

Los Angeles - Shanghai - Guangzhou - Japan

Will be covered by a single entry visa. You should be aware that the immigration procedure will be performed at the first stop, i.e. in Shanghai. Your Shanghai to Guangzhou flight is purely domestic one. Never mind because you will be covered by a visa all the time until you depart to Japan.

Now, your itinerary

Japan - Guangzhou - Shanghai - Los Angeles

Is definitely and undeniably eligible for 24 hour visa free transit in the case if your entire transit time, counted from your first scheduled arrival (in your case in Guangzhou) until your final scheduled departure (in your case from Shanghai) is shorter than 24 hours. It obviously is as you have presented.

So, upon your landing in Guangzhou (the second one), you will approach 24/144 hour visa free transit counter where you will apply for a temporary entry permit in order to be allowed to exit the airport (airside or better to say a transit area) in order to collect your luggage and to perform new check-in for your flight to Los Angeles via Shanghai. At the time of application, that is free of any charge, you will present your flight tickets and your hotel booking if you plan to stay overnight. After a short check, you will be granted a permit and you will proceed with your formalities in order to catch your flight to Los Angeles.

As far as Japan authorities are concerned, you should just be firm and present them your flight itinerary (tickets) and declare that you are flying from Japan to Los Angeles via China based on 24 hour visa free transit. You can expect possible misunderstanding from the Japanese side, especially if you fly on a Japanese airline. In any case, just keep repeating and presenting your flight itinerary because 24 hour visa free transit is described in the Timatic that they will use. In the case of persistent attempt to not allow you to board the plane, you will insist to see the supervisor and they will call their Chinese counterparts if necessary.

Just remain calm because you are the one that is using legal ways and they will ultimately had over to you your boarding pass. I hope that something like this will not be necessary, but I am just preparing you for one unpleasant situation that a check-in clerk could produce. You should have in mind that it is fine and acceptable to travel on separate tickets and on unrelated airlines as long as your flight itinerary and your time frame (24 hours) are respected. Have a nice journey.