China 144 hour visa free transit?

Haven’t had a problem using separate tickets before nor different airports in the same city.

I should say last time I did this was about 5 years ago though, so double check.

Big word of warning – if you have a Turkish (or possibly other “unfriendly”) stamp in your passport, visa on arrival doesn’t work and you’ll be sent back.

One of the friends who flew with us wasn’t allowed in, with c15 others from a BA flight. Only thing they worked out they all had in common were Turkish stamps. They were all continuing elsewhere, so the BA rep convinced the authorities to let them sleep on the floor and fly out the next day. It was a major nightmare. This is pre-Covid.

So if you’re not sure I’d just get a visa to be honest. This wasn’t written anywhere, BA wasn’t checking for it. But apparently it was happening regularly.

Have a look at the China forum on FT, there’s quite a detailed thread on it with some up to date info.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china/708095-china-24-72-144-hour-transit-without-visa-twov-rules-master-thread.html

Remember it’s transit without a visa, TWOV. I’ve done it once, pre-covid, I don’t remember any pre-authorisation but BA were meticulous in checking we had hotels booked and onward travel arrangements (ticketed) to a third country.

We have also had problems with this on two separate occasions. The first issue was TIMATIC being structured in such a way that it only gave the right answer if the agent said it was a transit in China not a stopover as I recall.

The second issue was on arrival in China, knowledge of the scheme seemed very scant. However we were staying at the Hyatt in Beijing and had paid for a transfer which included a meet & greet (it was something like £70 for the 5 of us!). So we were met at the end of the jetbridge by airport staff. As we walked to immigration I explained what we were doing, so the lady took us to the right desk then explained all this to the agent in Chinese. We were stamped in relatively quickly.

Bad form if they’re randomly deciding that a certain stamp black balls you, mind…