Three doors, not one rumor
Visa-free entry is a short visit to China. The National Immigration Administration’s unilateral list, dated 17 February 2026, covers 50 ordinary passports for business, tourism, visiting people, exchange, or transit, for up to 30 days. Most of those waivers run through 31 December 2026. Russia’s runs through 31 December 2027. Brunei is listed with no end date. A mutual agreement is the other way in, and it is generally a stay under 30 days. Malaysia adds a 90-day cap inside any 180 days.
Visa-free transit is not a holiday that starts and ends at home. The 240-hour rule, updated 20 August 2026, covers 57 ordinary passports when the traveler is going on to a third country or region, with a confirmed onward seat, through one of 65 designated ports, and staying inside the permitted area for that port. The permitted area is not the whole country. A return ticket to the country you just left does not qualify.
Everyone else needs a visa before flying, including a connection that leaves the airport hall. A 24-hour transit that stays inside the port’s restricted area is the exception, and it needs an onward ticket. Work, study, and journalism are outside every waiver on this page.
How to apply when you need a visa
- Find the Chinese embassy, consulate, or visa center that covers where you legally live. A post often refuses an application from a country where you are only passing through.
- Fill in the China Online Visa Application at consular.mfa.gov.cn/VISA. A tourist visit is an L visa. Work, study, and a family move are different categories. The center’s own list is the list that counts.
- The form asks for the passport, a photo, work, family, and the trip. Upload what that post names. A passport with blank pages and validity past the trip is the usual floor. Some posts want six months and a booking. Do not copy a checklist from a forum.
- When the online review asks for the passport, take it in. Some posts collect fingerprints. Passing the online step is not the visa. The sticker, or the refusal, comes after the passport is examined.
- Leave time before the flight. This guide does not quote a processing day, because the posts do not share one.
The stamp is not the whole trip
Fill the arrival card before you fly. It is free, and copycat sites charge for it. The cities in this guide are open once you are in. Tibet is not a free wander, and some border counties are not either. Those rules are on the before-you-go page, after the practical setup, because they apply to a detour and not to the twenty cities.