China's visa door is wide open: 17.8 million people entered visa-free in the first half of 2026, about 78 percent of all foreign arrivals.
Who gets in, and for how long:
- 50 nationalities, most of Europe plus the UK, Canada, Japan, Korea, and Australia, get 30 days on arrival, no visa, no fee
- If your passport is not on that list, the fallback is the 240-hour (ten full days) transit rule, most prominently for Americans, but only on a genuine A-to-China-to-C trip, not a round trip
- No work, study, or journalism on the waiver, and no extensions
The border is the easy part. Before you land, link a foreign card to Alipay or WeChat Pay (it can take days or fail) and buy a roaming eSIM, or Google, WhatsApp, and your maps stay blocked.
