Consider a 10-day Visa Free Transit
Even if your country is not listed above, all hope is not lost – Thanks to China’s visa-free transit policy (upgraded last year from 144 hours to 240 hours aka 10 days), ordinary passport holders from 55 countries can enter a specific region of China for up to 10 days. These countries include:
Europe: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Monaco, and Belarus
Asia: South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Brunei, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Indonesia
Oceania: Australia and New Zealand
North America: the United States, Canada and Mexico
South America: Brazil, Argentina, and Chile
The rules for this visa-free policy are a little more complicated; you must be transiting through China and not returning to the country you entered from, and you are restricted to one of twenty-four regions (so you can, for example, travel to Beijing and explore this region, but cannot travel from Beijing to Shanghai, crossing regional borders). For more information on this policy, check the official NIA website here. For stays longer than a 10-day transit, you must have a visa for the purpose of your visit.
