Answered by Borut | Jan. 02, 2025 00:59
David, this is not possible to accomplish without a tourist (L) visa. Usual duration of stay when traveling on a tourist visa is 30 days, so that could be a solution and you can obtain one in Hong Kong in relatively short time. Another solution would be to use a couple of 240 hour visa free transit schemes in a row. They would allow you stay for up to 10 days per one scheme. For example something like this:
Hong Kong - mainland China - Taiwan
Taiwan - mainland China - UK
This is just one of many possible examples and combinations. During each visit you can stay for up to 10 days (240 hours) and it is important that you can travel freely within the major part of the mainland China and you are not limited to the transit zones that have existed until recently.
240 hour visa free transit has one rule that has to be satisfied and that your immediate points before and after your mainland Chinese visit have to be in two different countries or eligible territories. Eligible territories are Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.
Your wife can enter mainland China, but not on BNO passport, but on the regular (full) one, however a Mainland travel permit would be a much better solution because the mainland Chinese authorities could expect from her to have one instead on a British document since she is a Hong Kong native. Whatever you decide, I wish you a pleasant journey.