Shanghai Transit Visa: China's 240-Hour Visa-Free Entry (2026)

What changed: 144 hours became 240

China replaced the 144-hour transit rule at the end of 2024. The current policy grants 240 hours \u2014 ten days \u2014 to nationals of 57 countries entering through any of 65 designated ports, and it lets you move across 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities rather than the single region the old rule confined you to.

Two of those changes matter more than the extra days. You are no longer tied to the province you landed in, and your exit port no longer has to be your entry port. Enter at Shanghai Pudong, spend a week working down through Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and fly out of Guangzhou \u2014 that is now permitted, and it was not under the 144-hour rule.

Shanghai's designated ports are Pudong International Airport, Hongqiao International Airport, and the Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal. You can arrive at one and leave from another, or leave from a port in an entirely different province.

Who qualifies

Fifty-seven countries are on the list, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, all EU and Schengen states, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Chile.

India, Pakistan, most of Africa and most of Southeast Asia outside Singapore and Brunei are not covered. If your passport is not on the list, this policy is not available to you and a standard visa from your local embassy is the route.

Your passport needs at least three months of remaining validity, and it must be an ordinary passport. Diplomatic and service passports follow separate rules; ask your embassy rather than assuming.

The third-country rule, which is where people come unstuck

This is a transit policy, not a tourist visa. Your onward ticket has to be to a third country or region \u2014 somewhere that is neither China nor the country you flew in from. Flying London to Shanghai and back to London does not qualify, however long you stay.

In practice officers have been inconsistent about this, and travellers do report returning to their origin country without trouble. Do not plan around that. A refundable flight to Seoul, Osaka or Bangkok usually costs less than a hundred dollars and removes the only part of this process that can end with you being refused entry at the desk.

Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan count as separate regions for this purpose, which makes a Shanghai to Hong Kong flight a valid onward ticket.

What to have printed before you fly

Your passport, valid at least three months beyond arrival. Officers check the expiry date properly.

The onward ticket, departing China within 240 hours of your arrival, on paper. Airport wifi needs a Chinese phone number to sign up for, your battery may be flat, and an officer would rather read a sheet of paper than hold your phone.

Your first night's hotel booking with the address in Chinese. A Trip.com or Booking.com confirmation with the reference number is enough.

The arrival card, handed out on the plane or available before the immigration hall. Complete it before you join the queue: name exactly as printed in the passport, passport number, nationality, flight number, purpose of visit as transit or tourism, and the Chinese address of your hotel.

At the desk in Pudong

Follow the signs to immigration (\u5165\u5883\u68c0\u67e5); the walk is five to fifteen minutes depending on the terminal. Both T1 and T2 handle visa-free transit.

Look for the lane marked 'Transit Without Visa' (\u5916\u56fd\u4eba\u514d\u7b7e\u8fc7\u5883). The general foreign nationals lane can also process you, but the transit lane is usually shorter.

Hand over the passport, the arrival card and the printed onward ticket. The officer may ask for the hotel booking. You get a temporary entry permit stamped with the exact date and time you must be out of the country by \u2014 photograph it before you leave the hall.

Five to twenty minutes is normal. If something is wrong with your documents the officer will either explain it in basic English or bring someone who speaks more.

Collect your bag, then take the green customs channel unless you are carrying over 5,000 USD in cash or something restricted.

How far you can actually go

Twenty-four provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities are open to you, and you may cross freely between them. That includes Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and most of the eastern and southern country.

Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Qinghai, Gansu and Jilin are outside the permitted area. Domestic flights and trains into those regions are not covered by this permit.

Ten days entering at Shanghai is enough for a real trip rather than a stopover: three or four days in Shanghai, a night in Suzhou twenty-five minutes away by train, two in Hangzhou for West Lake, then the four-and-a-half-hour high-speed train to Beijing and a flight home from there. Under the old rule that itinerary was illegal.

The clock starts at 00:00 on the day after you arrive, not at the moment you land. Arriving at ten at night on a Monday costs you nothing \u2014 the 240 hours begin at midnight going into Tuesday.

The five things that go wrong

Nothing printed. Officers here work from paper. Print the onward ticket, the hotel booking and your passport page, and carry them in your hand luggage rather than the bag going into the hold.

No onward ticket at all. 'I will book something once I am there' does not pass. The officer needs a confirmed booking with dates and a flight or train number.

Overstaying. The limit is enforced, at 500 CNY a day, and it can come with detention and a ban on future entry. Set an alarm for 24 hours before the time stamped in your passport.

Assuming you are still tied to one province. This was true under the 144-hour rule and is the most common piece of out-of-date advice online. You may now move across all 24 permitted regions and leave from any designated port.

Not registering where you sleep. Foreigners must register their accommodation with the police within 24 hours. Hotels do it at check-in. If you stay with friends or in an unregistered flat, you have to go to the local police station yourself, and the fine for skipping it is real.

Before you land

Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay with your card while you still have working internet. Almost nothing here takes cash, and a foreign card alone will not get you a metro ticket. The Alipay setup guide on this site covers the parts that fail with foreign cards.

Install an eSIM before boarding. Airport wifi wants a Chinese phone number to send a code to, which is a problem best solved before you are standing in the arrivals hall.

From Pudong, the Maglev takes eight minutes and costs 50 CNY, metro line 2 takes 60 to 70 minutes and costs 7 CNY, and Didi runs 150 to 250 CNY depending on where you are going.

Change 200 to 300 CNY in cash for emergencies and pay for everything else with your phone. The Bank of China counters in the arrivals hall give a fair rate.