China’s 30-day visa-free entry,
explained for Europeans.

Most European travellers can now enter China without any visa at all for stays of up to 30 days. The rule is simple — but the details at the border are not obvious the first time. Here is exactly how it works.

Is my country visa-free for China in 2026?

Very likely yes. Ordinary passport holders of 35 European countries may enter China visa-free for up to 30 days per entry — for tourism, business, family and friend visits, exchanges or transit. The arrangement is announced as running through 31 December 2026. The UK is among the most recent additions (effective 17 February 2026); Czechia and Lithuania are notably not covered.

The full country list is below; this page was last reviewed on 30 September 2026.

List current as of 30 September 2026. The arrangement is announced as running through 31 December 2026 and has been extended repeatedly before — but it is a unilateral Chinese policy, and we re-confirm it for your specific passport and dates before any booking. Source: the Chinese embassy's official visa-free policy Q&A.

Travelling in 2027: re-check at booking time

The arrangement is announced as running through 31 December 2026, and it has been extended repeatedly before — but for a trip that starts in 2027, treat the policy status as one more thing to confirm when you book, alongside flights and hotels. The working method is simple: when you enquire, we re-confirm the current rule for your passport and dates, and we re-verify again before you fly. If the arrangement is not extended, travel returns to the standard visa process — an application through the Chinese visa centre in your country, typically a few weeks of lead time and a fee. The three situations — entering before the end of 2026, travelling in 2027, already booked — are laid out in the visa-free China 2026 planning guide.

Our booking terms are built for this kind of uncertainty rather than against it: a €250 deposit per person, refunded in full if you cancel 45 days or more before departure, balance due only 60 days out, and one free date change — the full terms are published here. And if you are flexible on when rather than whether, the two weather windows that suit most first trips are mapped in our month-by-month guide to the best time to visit China.

What is the 240-hour transit rule?

The 240-hour transit rule is a separate visa-free scheme that lets passport holders of 55 countries stay in designated Chinese regions for up to 10 days without a visa, provided you arrive from one country and depart onward to a different third country within 240 hours. You apply at the border on arrival, and it covers 65 ports of entry as of 2026. Source: the National Immigration Administration's visa-free transit policy page.

It is the useful fallback if your passport is not on the 30-day visa-free list — or if a short China stopover on the way to Japan, Korea or Southeast Asia is all you need.

What are the conditions for visa-free entry to China?

Ordinary passport, valid on arrival — 6+ months validity is recommended, as airlines can be strict. Stay is up to 30 days per entry, for tourism, business, visiting family or friends, exchanges or transit; no permits are needed before travel. Multiple entries are allowed with no published annual cap. Longer stays, work, study or journalism require a visa in advance.

One caveat on multiple entries: if you effectively live at the border on repeated stays, expect questions — the rule is written for visits, not residence.

What actually happens at the Chinese border on arrival?

Complete the online arrival card before you fly, then join the foreigners' lane — fingerprints are taken for most first-time visitors and it takes minutes. The questions are routine: where you're staying, how long, with whom. Your hotel registers you automatically; staying with friends means registering at the local police station within 24 hours (72 in rural areas).

We send you the current arrival-card link (QR or app) with your documents, so it’s done before departure. The one rule first-timers most often miss is the police-station registration whenever no hotel does it for you.

The choreography above is exactly how day one opens on our ten-day Classic China plan, worked out in full — the border hall, the first hotel night, and the registration handled automatically.

What should I carry to pass the China border quickly?

Printed confirmations of your first hotel and your onward or return flight, plus your first night's address in Chinese characters. Officers like paper — with those three things the whole process takes around ten minutes.

Visa-free entry removed the paperwork, not the culture shock of the border hall. Travel with us and those three things arrive prepared before departure — printouts, Chinese address, done.

And if you’d rather have the border choreography — and the rest of the trip — handled for you, that is the whole job of a private journey. See the Classic China route, ten days privately.