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Asked by L from portugal | Aug. 04, 2025 11:15
About:24-Hour Visa-Free Transit

Portuguese Passport Holder flying CPH-PVG-SYD

Hello! I am a Portuguese passport holder and found your website to be extremely helpful.
I am planning a trip to Australia, and I found that doing a transit through Shanghai is a lot cheaper than flying semi-directly to Sydney!

I wanted to know what the steps will be for me to enter the city of Shanghai. I wanted to do a layover both when going to Australia and when coming back.

So:

CPH-PVG-SYD (layover of 8 hours in Pudong)

and, 2 weeks later,

SYD-PVG-CPH (layover of 11 hours in Pudong)

What will happen when I fly in, and what do I need to bring? I don't understand if I will take advantage of the 24-Hour Visa-Free Transit or the 30-Day Visa-Free policy. I hope you can help me understand my own situation better. Thank you in advance!

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Answers (1)
Answered by Borut | Aug. 05, 2025 01:05
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L, your situation is so simple. I can see that you understand that the Portuguese citizens can enter China absolutely visa free for a stay of up to 30 days. In other words, you will not be a subject of any visa free transit scheme or anything similar, but you will travel as someone who does not need any kind of visa. You can compare it as if you were making a transfer in UK. Now, if you want to stay in the airport transit zone (which I doubt), you will just walk from one to the other gate and you do not need to fill out any form nor to perform any formality. You will just stay within the transit zone and that is it. However, if you want to exit the airport, you can do it without any doubt. Upon your landing in Shanghai you will first fill out an arrival card and you will tick - transit in the appropriate box on it. After that proceed to automatic fingerprinting and after these two details, just proceed to the immigration. If asked about your plans, you will just say that you will shortly visit the city between the two flights. After that, you will exit the airport, take a metro / taxi to the city and enjoy your time on your own. You will repeat the same procedure during your second layover, of course. Have wonderful two short visits to Shanghai.
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