China 240-Hour Visa-Free Transit: Rules & Ports (2026)

China's 240-hour visa-free transit policy lets eligible passport holders stay up to 10 days across 24 mainland provinces and municipalities, entering and exiting through 65 approved air, sea, land, and HSR ports. The policy expanded from 144 hours on 17 December 2024 — the same announcement unlocked cross-province movement — then to 65 ports in November 2025. A major upgrade that most online guides still get wrong. 55 nationalities qualify; 65 of those hold the full 30-day visa-free entry and rarely need the transit option.

Changelog: every dated change since 2013

Two separate schemes decide whether you need a visa at all — transit (this policy) and 30-day visa-free (per nationality) — and they changed on different dates. Both tracks in one list, each change linked to the notice that made it. The two oldest entries are the schemes this policy replaced; their 2013 and 2016 notices are no longer online.

Port counts and the newest expansion above are generated from our port dataset, so they cannot drift from the list we publish. We keep the superseded 72- and 144-hour entries because most older guides still describe them as current.

The headline changes if you last read about this in the 144-hour era:

• Stay extended to 240 hours (10 days) from 144 hours (6 days). The clock starts at immigration entry, not at landing.
• Ports expanded to 65 across 24 provinces and municipalities — up from 39 ports / 19 regions under the old 144-hour scheme. Beijing Daxing, Chengdu Tianfu, Guangzhou, and the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge are now all included.
• Free movement across the eligible zone. You can enter via Shanghai, take a high-speed train to Xi'an, fly to Chengdu, then leave from Beijing — all within the same 240-hour window. Earlier policies forced you to leave from the same province.

Articles dated before December 2024 referencing "144-hour transit" are not necessarily wrong — the policy still exists for some travelers in edge cases — but the 240-hour rule supersedes it for almost every traveler who would have used the old one.

Who qualifies — the edge cases

The three-way split above settles most passports. Our dataset lists 55 transit-eligible nationalities, monitored daily, and four situations are worth spelling out because the split alone does not resolve them:

• The United States is the notable holdout. US passport holders are on the transit list but have no unilateral visa-free entry — so for a US citizen this policy is the standard short-trip, mixed-itinerary path, and any round-trip or non-transit visit still needs an L-visa. See our China visa guide for US citizens.
• Some passports enter under a treaty, not a policy. Singapore, Thailand, Serbia, Belarus, Georgia and Armenia among others hold bilateral visa-exemption agreements with China. Those are treaties, so they carry none of the 31 Dec 2026 expiry that the unilateral scheme does — and they are why some nationalities never appear on China's published visa-free list yet still walk in.
• Brunei has no expiry date at all. Every other nationality's visa-free entry runs to 31 Dec 2026 (Russia to 31 Dec 2027). Brunei's is open-ended — the only one.

The third-country rule

This is the rule that trips up the most travelers. The 240-hour transit requires you to transit through China, which means leaving to a different country or region than the one you arrived from. Same-country round trips do not qualify.

• ✅ Tokyo → Shanghai → Hong Kong — qualifies. Tokyo is your origin; Hong Kong is the third region.
• ✅ London → Beijing → Singapore — qualifies (though UK passports now have 30-day visa-free anyway).
• ❌ New York → Shanghai → New York — does NOT qualify. Same country at both ends. You need an L-visa for this.
• ✅ Sydney → Beijing → Tokyo — qualifies.

Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan count as third regions for the 240-hour policy. So if your itinerary is New York → Beijing → Hong Kong → New York, the China leg qualifies.

The onward ticket is checked at the immigration counter. Staff want to see a confirmed booking — not just a screenshot of search results — for a flight, train, or ship leaving China within the 240-hour window. Save the PDF or email and have it ready.

Where you can travel during the 240 hours

24 provinces and municipalities participate. Practically, this covers almost everywhere a foreign traveler wants to go: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Qingdao, Kunming, Guilin, Xiamen, and Tianjin are all inside the zone.

Three regions are NOT in the 240-hour zone:

• Tibet (Xizang Autonomous Region) — entering Tibet requires both a Chinese visa and a separate Tibet Travel Permit. 240-hour transit holders cannot enter.
• Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region — entering some parts of Xinjiang (especially border counties) requires additional permits.
• Some border counties in Yunnan and Inner Mongolia — most of these provinces are open, but specific border zones are not.

If your trip needs Tibet or restricted Xinjiang areas, get an L-visa and the relevant permits — don't rely on transit.

All 65 ports, by region

You must enter and leave through ports on this list — check both ends of your itinerary before you book. The new markers are the 5 added on 5 Nov 2025; every other port has been on the list since the policy launched in December 2024.

Rendered from our port dataset, which adds the official row number, the Chinese name to show a driver, and the permitted stay area for each one.

The gate procedure, step by step

1. Arrival card. Pick up an Arrival/Departure card on the plane or at the kiosk near immigration. Fill in your hotel address in the "Address in China" field — staff will ask if it's blank.
2. Pick the right lane. At immigration, look for the 240-hour transit lane (sometimes labeled 24 / 144 / 240 hours). At major hubs like PVG and PEK, it's a separate counter with shorter lines. If you join the regular visa lane, the officer will redirect you — losing 15–30 minutes.
3. Documents. Hand over: passport (6+ months validity, 2 blank pages), the Arrival card, your onward ticket out of China to a third country, and the address of where you're staying (hotel booking or written address).
4. Stamp. The officer stamps a transit notation (24/144/240 hours depending on the policy you qualify for). Verify the stamp before walking away. Mistakes happen — better to fix them at the counter than at exit.
5. Get connected and set up payments. Once through, switch on a travel eSIM and bind a foreign card to Alipay or WeChat Pay — most foreign cards now work for most things, but cash-only situations still exist in older taxis and small restaurants.

240-hour transit vs full visa-free vs L-visa

Common pitfalls

• No onward ticket booked yet. Search results don't count. Book before you fly.
• Same-country origin and destination. Already covered — this is the third-country rule.
• Wrong port. Some smaller airports — Lhasa and Ürümqi among them — are not on the eligible list. Find both your entry and your exit airport in the 65-port list above before you book; it is the exit that catches people out.
• Joining the wrong immigration lane. Free fix, but costs time. Look for the 24/144/240-hour signage.
• Counting wrong. 240 hours from clearing immigration, not from landing. If you land at midnight and clear at 02:00, your countdown starts at 02:00.
• Using transit when you now qualify for full visa-free. UK, Canadian and most-European passports gained 30-day visa-free — don't hobble yourself with the shorter transit stamp.
• Old guides with the 144-hour rule. Most pre-2025 guides still cite 144 hours and an older port list. Cross-check with the current official notice or our dataset.

Once you're in

The most efficient way to cover 2–4 cities in 10 days is by high-speed train. Our interactive HSR map shows the 24 cities foreign travelers actually visit, with prices, durations, and daily train counts. The flagship route, Shanghai to Beijing, takes 4h18m and runs 51 times a day — see our Shanghai to Beijing rail guide for the full breakdown.

For booking the trains, two options: the official 12306 app (free, and now takes a passport + foreign card directly — see our 12306 English walkthrough) or Trip.com (same 12306 fare, no booking fee, smoother for foreign cards — see our Trip.com guide).

Frequently asked questions

Is China 240-hour visa-free transit really 10 days?

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240 hours from the moment you clear immigration. If you land at 14:00 on Monday, your countdown starts then and ends 14:00 the following Thursday — a full 10 calendar days. The clock does not pause if you change cities inside the eligible region.

When did the 240-hour transit policy take effect, and when did it last change?

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It took effect on 17 December 2024, replacing the older 72-hour (2013) and 144-hour (2016) schemes in a single announcement: 60 ports, 24 provinces, 54 nationalities, cross-province travel included. The most recent change was the November 2025 expansion from 60 to 65 ports. We monitor the policy daily and update this page when the next change lands.

Do I need to leave to a different country, or can I return home?

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You must depart to a third country or region — not the one you arrived from. Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan count as third regions for this rule. So Tokyo → Shanghai → Hong Kong qualifies; Tokyo → Shanghai → Tokyo does not. The third-country rule is the single most-violated condition in our experience reading immigration FAQs.

Which Chinese ports accept the 240-hour transit?

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65 ports across 24 provinces and municipalities after the November 2025 expansion. Major hubs include Beijing Capital (PEK), Beijing Daxing (PKX), Shanghai Pudong (PVG), Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA), Guangzhou Baiyun (CAN), Shenzhen Bao'an (SZX), Chengdu Tianfu (TFU), Xi'an Xianyang (XIY), Hangzhou Xiaoshan (HGH), and the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge land port. Use the per-country pages on our checker for the ports each nationality can use.

Can I travel anywhere in China during the 240 hours?

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You can move freely within the 24 provinces and municipalities that participate. That covers most major tourist regions: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing, and the rest of the eastern and central seaboard. Tibet, Xinjiang, and a few border regions are NOT in the 240-hour zone — entering them requires a separate permit.

Can I enter at one Chinese city and fly out of a different one to a third country?

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Yes. Since December 2024 you can enter at one approved port, move across the 24 eligible provinces, and exit at a different approved port — as long as the whole China stay is under 240 hours and you leave to a third country. Example: an eligible passport (say a US citizen) flying USA → Xiamen (Fujian), staying a week, taking a domestic flight to Guangzhou (Guangdong), then flying onward to Budapest, all qualifies. Both Xiamen (XMN) and Guangzhou (CAN) are approved ports, Fujian and Guangdong are both in the eligible zone, and the USA-to-Hungary routing satisfies the third-country rule. You must be on the transit-eligible list and have the confirmed onward third-country ticket at check-in.

I hold a Nepalese passport (or another nationality not on the transit list) — can I still transit China visa-free?

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Partly. The 72/144/240-hour visa-free transit only covers the listed nationalities, and Nepal is not among them — so you cannot use the 10-day scheme. Separately, China's 24-hour direct transit (TWOV) is open to all nationalities, including Nepal, but only for a clean single-airport transit where you stay inside the terminal (airside) and depart within 24 hours to a third country. The catch is routings with two Chinese stops and a domestic leg (e.g. Kathmandu → Chengdu → Beijing → onward): China has no sealed international-to-domestic transfer, so to catch the domestic flight you must clear immigration, which counts as entering China. Since Nepal can't use the 240-hour scheme, that entry needs a G-type transit visa obtained in advance. The clean options are to transit through one Chinese airport only, or get the G visa before you fly — and confirm with your airline, since they enforce this at check-in.

What documents do I show at the gate?

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Passport (6+ months validity, 2 blank pages), the boarding pass for your onward flight to a third country/region with a confirmed seat, hotel booking or address for your stay, and a completed Arrival/Departure card. The onward ticket is the one foreigners most often forget — staff will ask for it before stamping you in.

How is 240-hour different from regular visa-free entry?

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Regular unilateral visa-free entry (30 days, around 50 nationalities as of 2026) lets you enter, leave, and re-enter freely as long as each stay fits the cap. The 240-hour transit is a one-shot: you enter, stay up to 10 days, then leave to a third country. You cannot use it to enter for "tourism" — you must have an onward third-country ticket. For most foreign tourists whose country now has full 30-day visa-free (most of Europe, plus the UK and Canada from Feb 2026), the transit policy is irrelevant.

What if my plans change and I overstay 240 hours?

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Overstaying is a serious violation — fines start at ¥500 per day, escalate to detention beyond 10 days over, and can lead to a 1–5 year re-entry ban. If your situation changes, go to the local Public Security Bureau Exit-Entry office before the 240 hours expire to apply for an extension or convert to a tourist visa.

Related

• Which countries can enter China visa-free — the full 65-nationality list, and when it expires.
• Visa requirement checker — your nationality, in one click.
• China visa for US citizens — the holdout passport, in detail.
• Already 30-day visa-free, so transit rules may not even apply to you: UK citizens, Canadians, Australians.
• Interactive HSR map — plan the rail leg.
• China HSR network overview — train classes, station codes, the whole network.
• Book China trains online (Trip.com)