Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

How we got into China without a visa last night

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

We are currently at the Waldorf-Astoria in Beijing on the last leg of our Asian holiday.

If you have been to China in recent years, you will know that the visa situation can be expensive and time consuming, especially if you don’t have easy access to a good agency.

We are currently in Beijing for a grand total of 36 hours.  This was partly due to necessity – it was easy to get 4 seats on British Airways for Avios out of Beijing but impossible from Tokyo in peak season where we were – and partly because my wife wanted to see a friend who is working here.

You no longer need a visa for most major Chinese cities if you are in transit.  ‘Transit’ is defined as ‘arriving from one country and leaving to another’ so you cannot use it for a brief visit to China from the UK and then head home.

It is perfectly fine to do what we did – Tokyo to Beijing to London.

You MUST take the transit visa in the first Chinese city that you touch on your routing.  If, for example, you had booked Tokyo – Beijing (change of plane, not leaving the airport) – Shanghai, you CANNOT get a 72 hour visa for Shanghai.  It must be done in Beijing or not at all.

You do NOT need to book both flights on the same ticket.  They do not even need to be on the same airline.  All that matters is that you can provide a copy of your eticket at immigration.

The time period varies by city – for Beijing you can have up to 72 hours.  You cannot leave Beijing during this period.

It was, to be honest, a slow process.  Only one line was handling the 72-hour transit visas.  When we reached the front, we had to fill out an additional form on the spot (this form is needed if you are staying for 24+ hours) and our passports were then taken away for 20 minutes while we hung around.  Once returned, we were allowed in.

It was a frustrating wait – about 75 minutes in total.  All the passengers with visas were through immigration long before us.  We got there in the end though.

PS.  We paid the Waldorf-Astoria £150 to pick us up and, as usual in Asia, it was money well spent.  We were met at the airbridge and walked to immigration.  The rep waited for 75 minutes whist we were processed.  When we eventually got to baggage reclaim, our bags had been removed from the belt but he knew where to find them.  Even better, he then took us out of Beijing Airport via the VIP side exit where our car was waiting for us.  The driver contacted the hotel as we approached and a welcome party was waiting at the front door and escorted us directly to our rooms where we were checked in.  All very easy indeed.  Mini review of the hotel to follow in a week or so.

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Did you know that the Virgin Atlantic credit cards are a great way of earning Hilton Honors points? Two Virgin Points can be converted into three Hilton Honors points. The Virgin Atlantic cards are the only Visa or Mastercard products in the UK which can indirectly earn Hilton Honors points. You can apply here.

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Hilton points is 1:2.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Category

Hilton Honors

Comments (87)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Nick says:
    15 Apr15 April 09:28

    I’m actually very concerned when hotels are allowed to do that… airside passes being given to people who don’t really need them, collecting your luggage for you, and taking a ‘shortcut’ at/near customs all sound like weak links in security… I don’t despute that it’s a good service, just prefer it to meet you as you emerge into a public area under your own steam.

    • callum says:
      15 Apr15 April 09:54

      Given those airport staff can buy tickets and go airside if they wanted to do something nefarious, how is it a lapse in security? (Unless you’re saying they don’t go through the same security?)

      The shortcut also does nothing to impact security. Worst case scenario (which I doubt is happening), you bypass customs and bring in something you shouldn’t.

    • Rob says:
      15 Apr15 April 10:36

      I think this guy actually worked for the CIP team at the airport. He wasn’t our driver.

  • pointsarb says:
    15 Apr15 April 09:30

    Morning all, can anybody confirm whether or not any kind of visa is required for Hong Kong? We are hoping to transit same day of arrival to Thailand this Xmas however avios availability from HKG-Thailand may require us to stay over 1-2 nights in HK upon arrival so wondered if we will need any kind of visa for this if it happens? Thanks!

    • Stu N says:
      15 Apr15 April 09:40

      Nope, for UK passport holders no via for HK itself. You can’t leave HK and Macau for mainland China though.

      • Alex W says:
        15 Apr15 April 11:24

        Can you visit HK without visa then do a 72 hour stopover in Shanghai without Visa?

        • Genghis says:
          15 Apr15 April 12:27

          Shouldn’t be a problem.

        • guesswho2000 says:
          15 Apr15 April 16:06

          I did it in the opposite direction a couple of years ago, LHR-HEL-PEK, then a one way PEK-HKG, then HKG-HEL-LHR. They count Hong Kong and Macau as third countries for the purposes of the transit visa.

      • pointsarb says:
        15 Apr15 April 11:45

        Cheers Stu!

      • gs says:
        15 Apr15 April 16:58

        You can got to ShenZhen and get a 5-day visa at the border. It’s valid only for ShenZhen though.

    • James67 says:
      15 Apr15 April 14:15

      Recommend saving your avios and jump on Air Asia flight. It’s barely 2h, usually dirt cheap and you’ll be out DMK and well into town before you even clear immigration at BOK at busy times. HK always worth stopping over though 🙂

      • pointsarb says:
        15 Apr15 April 21:17

        Hi James,

        Yep looked at Air Asia but figured I’m better off just paying £35-£50 pp and some Avios to fly to Thailand on CX. Of course availability has to be there though so can’t rule out the low cost operators….

        Cheers

        • James67 says:
          15 Apr15 April 22:41

          I don’t know how much time you have before your trip and if Emirates are still flying their a380 5th freedom flights on the route. If so, and you havd time to put in place, it is a good use of the £150 Emirates voucher with tbe credit card. Sri Lankan and Ethiopian also operated 5th freedom and probably still do, seats in both economy and business were great value. You can also redeem avios on Sri Lankan if seats available, their long haul a330 trumps CX regional busibess class although you can get lucky with longhaul CX metal too. There ard also direct avios flights to Phuket and Chiang Mai from HKG too with Cathay Dragon if either of those are of interest. Enjoy your trip.

  • David says:
    15 Apr15 April 10:25

    Used the transit visa in Shanghai last year before proceeding to Seoul. It’s well worth checking the max time allowed in the city you plan to visit – we planned a stop of 72 hours exactly but upon arrival we found we were allowed to stay up to 7 days. We might have taken advantage had we known about it earlier, particularly because in the Shanghai region you can also visit Hangzhou and Fuzhou, which we missed out on.

    • graham says:
      15 Apr15 April 10:29

      Interesting we were told we could not leave Shanghai but agree it was frustrating not seeing the water towns I heard it was well worth it from people we met. At least you may have been able to see more than 200 yards though the smog.

      • callum says:
        15 Apr15 April 10:43

        You can visit Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang – quite an extensive area.

        I could see the benefit of this system when it was just one or two cities for a day or two, but now there seems to be a dozen that goes up to a week I really don’t see why they can’t just make a simple national version! Does anyone know if there’s a specific reason why they won’t, or is it just bureaucracy?

      • Bemused says:
        15 Apr15 April 15:12

        Of course you can visit those areas on a free transit VISA.
        Indeed, how would anyone know if you had, even if it was supposedly not allowed?

        • John says:
          15 Apr15 April 16:07

          You can’t just move around in China, the hotel will register you with the local gong’anbu

          • Bemused says:
            15 Apr15 April 17:28

            Do you think the hotel staff follow you around in case you decide to go on a day trip to the water towns?

            #nonsense

        • Callum says:
          15 Apr15 April 21:54

          It’s also pretty easy to steal stuff at self scan checkouts – doesn’t mean you should do it and that there are no potential consequences…

          You can be stopped by the police and made to show your passport at any time. Is it likely you’ll be stopped? No. Does it happen? Yes. Luckily in the cases I’ve seen the police were just as confused about the programme as some immigration officers are so just let them go. If you want to run the tiny risk of being detained as an illegal alien in a country like China then go ahead.

    • Alex W says:
      15 Apr15 April 11:28

      I would recommend visiting Suzhou and Tong Li, assuming they are within the requirements of your Shanghai transit visa.

      Hangzhou I wouldn’t bother with. Just a very touristy lake.

    • John says:
      15 Apr15 April 16:11

      I think you mean Suzhou. Fuzhou is quite far away. Near to Suzhou is Huzhou, which should be allowed too.

  • Tom says:
    15 Apr15 April 10:51

    To add to the experiences below, I did this in November at Chengdu (before BA pulled the CTU route), I had about a 5-10 minute wait whilst the immigration officer went to fetch someone else and he didn’t seem to know exactly what to do, but after that they took my passport for a few minutes and then I was straight through, no more than 15 minutes I’d say. I imagine doing this at PEK takes longer just because of the general size/ set-up there, but sounds like you got slightly unlucky, Rob!

  • JK says:
    15 Apr15 April 12:24

    Done this a few times now at both Beijing and Shanghai and usually only takes 5 mins at most (2 of us). Think this was just unlucky this time Rob.

  • BA says:
    15 Apr15 April 14:07

    OT: Has anyone who has upgraded their UK Amex to platinum /9with the link that’s circulating) had a counter on the right-hand side when the login counting down their £1000 spend to the 20000 bonus? This usually happens, but I can’t see one with mine…

    • Genghis says:
      15 Apr15 April 14:21

      if its same as a couple of years ago, there is no counter for the upgrade offer.

    • James67 says:
      15 Apr15 April 14:26

      Did this last year. Counter didn’t show for me. A quick call to CS was reassuring and bonus points still posted despite the missing counter. Can you please report back when the fee hits your account, I’m trying to determine if it is soon after upgrade now or still anniversary of the gold card that was upgraded. Thanks.

    • JP says:
      15 Apr15 April 17:08

      What would the link be that is circulating?

      • the real harry1 says:
        15 Apr15 April 18:06

        the bikini babe https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/content/platinum-charge/upgrade/

        • TripRep says:
          15 Apr15 April 18:58

          Thanks TRH might give that a tickle, once upgraded to Plat its still only 9k referral bonus if you refer a partner/friend for a Gold?

          • Polly says:
            16 Apr16 April 00:08

            Yes, 9 for gold, 18 for plat, unfortunately. Shame really, you would think they could reward the plat holder a bit more for referring, but l guess the PRG is the lowly card. Love your pics.
            How’s the appeal v BA going?

          • TripRep says:
            16 Apr16 April 08:35

            Thanks Polly.

            The claim is with CEDR who’ve verified its a valid claim and passed it to BA. I’m expecting that BA will settle after the maximum time its allowed, so a couple of weeks, they may want to make the process unnecessarily long and tedious to deter any other similar valid claims.

            If it doesn’t go as far as small claims or MCOL, I may scribe a step by step “how to lodge a claim for a companion voucher downgrade” article for Rob to file away. Its quite amusing & pathethic the number of times BA keep pushing out the same insulting template responses claiming the £200 compensation is the maximum amount, they xan pay. Eventually after sterner tone from myself, they buckled and finally confirmed a deadlock position so I could use this and refer to CEDR after 6 weeks rather than having to wait 8 weeks before submitting to CEDR.

            Worth remembering the CAA say airlines should pay claims for a downgrade under EU261/2004 in full within SEVEN days!

            #VeryShoddyBA

          • the real harry1 says:
            16 Apr16 April 08:56

            + yes please for the CEDR etc article, might save me bit of time research for my F&B claim later on

        • thehornets says:
          16 Apr16 April 08:39

          Is this a targeted link or usable by anybody?

          • Genghis says:
            16 Apr16 April 08:49

            TBC. No one has confirmed receiving the points but my guess is it’s open given the very simple web address.

  • Siegfried says:
    15 Apr15 April 14:50

    It wasn’t clear from the online information, but you cannot transfer in China before your visa city.
    I was surprised to find that my flight to Shanghai stopped in Guangzhou so I wouldn’t be given a visa.. which meant a hasty flight booking to another country.
    Don’t make my mistake people!

    • John says:
      15 Apr15 April 16:09

      You (at this time) can if your total time in China is under 24 hours, depending on your citizenship.

  • JP says:
    15 Apr15 April 16:15

    We did the same China/Japan/China trip over the last two weeks.

    I have had the same experience as you at both Terminal 2 (where there is no special line, but does have signs on the floor telling you where to go and Terminal 3 with the special desk in the last couple of weeks. Both times had a long wait where passports and e-ticket taken off by someone and return after a while. Fill in the extra forms and eventually made it through. Both times we were the last people left in immigration and bags taken off the carousel. Probably about 90 minutes to get through each time with the queue and extra’s checks. Terminal 2 really didn’t seem to know what to do and they are so slow in doing the process. No rushing are just chatting sometimes and disappear for ages.

    What I don’t understand is most people in the 72 hour queue (mainly American’s seem to get straight through without the extra’s checks), whilst a few people get the extra checks mostly British (and we had it twice).

    The second time meant the underground was closed (it closes really early at 10:30), after getting the airport express, and had to get a taxi. I think I got away lightly at 100 RMB with some help from the hotel…. (after he started at 240 and I got him down to 180, found out it should have been about 30).

    Also very nearly got bumped off the Hainan airlines flight this morning due to cancelled flights the day before, if we didn’t make the flight the next Hainan flight would have taken us over 72 hours so don’t know what would happen then! Very happy to be home now. Beijing is a on odd place, no traffic rules have to look everywhere to not get run over as nobody takes any notice of traffic rules. Taxi drivers are crazy. So many people looking to rip of tourists from rickshaws, taxi, random people coming up to on the streets etc. Beijing was worth if for the Forbidden city, Tianamen square, Olympic park and the Great wall. However is generally cheap (apart from branded western goods like Lego/Electronics etc. Attractions and tube are really cheap. I don’t feel the need to go back.

    The Renaissance Wangfujing however was amazing, upgraded to Club Level Forbidden city view room with lounge access. With two double beds so was big enough for family of 4, allowed free access to lounge for children of 13 and 10. Early check in at 9am (so made breakfast) and late checkout at 4pm (getting afternoon tea). Full breakfast in the morning and full dinner and drinks in the evening. Great location to walk to the sites and amazing spa and biggest indoor hotel pool I have seen. All for only 15K Marriott points and my Gold status from SPG match (from Amex Plat card). Now increased to 20K since I booked.

    • Polly says:
      15 Apr15 April 18:05

      Good reports all, makes us not really want to visit China. Even tho there is always availability for F 241 to/from Shanghai and Beijing . Would love to see Great Wall etc but it can wait. Think will stick to se Asia, Bali etc.. Watching current events closely…great trip tho for the kids Rob…

      • James67 says:
        15 Apr15 April 18:36

        The biggest problem I find Polly is that most of the tours including those organised by independent guides are a rip off. Not only that, we have found it difficult to get guides in China to listen to and respect our wishes. For example, we like to experience local transport systens and walk a lot. Never been a problem to arrange anyplace else except China, they seem incapable of listening or more likely just don’t want to do so because in my exoerience they want to control everything and squeeze every last dollar out of their customers. We were planning quite a comprehensive and potentially very exciting tour but in the end abandoned it because just trying to arrange it became so frustrating and stressful. I have a passion for independent travel but I believe a package tour organised by an external agency outside might be the best option for China.

        • JP says:
          15 Apr15 April 21:10

          All the stuff around Beijing city is very easy to do by yourself. The underground is very good and very cheap (2 RMB – 20p single). The main sites are walkable in the centre of Beijing. Also it seemed safe walking around, we walked around a lot in the day and evening and there are mainly tourists mostly American, and other European’s etc walking around. Not that many Brits. The hassling is easy to ignore and a polite no and they don’t persist too much.

          The tricky one is getting to the Great wall. It can be done by bus cheaply and fairly easily. It we went without children I would have done it. However we arranged a taxi through the hotel in the end for about £70 as was cheaper than the tours for 4. So we knew we would get a reliable driver. We did have him for around 8 hours due to awful traffic as it was a Chinese holiday. However he drove like a mentalist before of the traffic. Right up the back up of other cars, using the hard shoulder to undertake on the motorways and the middle seatbelt didn’t work where my daughter was sitting in…. I think it would have made a good F1 driver with his fast reactions.

          Also a lot of the cheaper tours end up in Jade factories/tombs etc trying to sell you stuff and waste Great wall time.

          • JP says:
            15 Apr15 April 21:26

            Also you can get the train to Badaling Great but it busiest section with tours and would need to be there early out of session to make the most of it.

          • James67 says:
            15 Apr15 April 22:14

            Thanks JP, our issues were not in Beijing.but rather in trying to organise a tour including X’ian, Shaolin and Guilin amongst others. On reflection I might have been a little unfair to the guides, perhaps everything is just so tightly regulated there that it is difficult for them to acommodate requests to highly personalise itineraries. In some ways it reminded me of my visits to Russia and Estonua in the last days of the USSR except that there everything cost peanuts whilst your average Chinese tours guide’s embrace of capitalism is enough to make the Wall Street Bull blush.

        • Polly says:
          16 Apr16 April 00:02

          Thanks James, and all, great to read different experiences here. Boy, is this blog a mine of information. So many China experts on here! But yes, like you we are also independent travellers,,but good thinking. A tour from outside China might be the way to go. At least to the wall. The city sounds ok we can walk around etc. It’s a big trip to plan, so a while away yet. That and AKL. Have to get HNL out of the way first, and get rid of our AA miles.

          • James67 says:
            16 Apr16 April 07:14

            Polly, Genghis introduced me to Intrepid tour company. It looks very good and might appeal to you too. You can get x3 clubcard return on them too. Enjoy Hawaii

          • Genghis says:
            16 Apr16 April 08:40

            For the Great Wall, we went to Jinshaling as part of a sun set tour. Great location and perhaps our best memory of China but if I were to do it again I’d take a private car.

          • Genghis says:
            16 Apr16 April 08:41

            And there weren’t that many people there

          • Polly says:
            17 Apr17 April 11:36

            Ghenghis/James, did you use Intrepid in country once you had booked independently. We would be using our 241 in F as there always appear to be seats. But am sure we can book that particular tour from the uk before we leave…. I actually get emails from intrepid, love their stuff.

          • Genghis says:
            19 Apr19 April 01:30

            @Polly. I’ve not used Intrepid yet. Booked them for Feb 18 (from UK) for a Kruger tour in RSA paid using Tesco cc vouchers. I booked other travel independently. Seemless so far. I’d have loved to have spent a couple of days at Sanbona / Shamwari but couldn’t justify the £1k / night.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? EARN POINTS WORTH 10,500 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!