Reply To: Shanghai 72hour VISA on arrival

[TJones]

144 hours Transit Without Visa (TWOV) is available at Shanghai. It is not a visa. You must be in transit to a third country (or Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao) without any other stops in China. LON-SHA-LON would not qualify for TWOV. Nor would LON-PEK-SHA-anywhere (if staying in China over 24 hours). But AMS-SHA-CDG would be ok. Also LON-SHA-HKG-SHA-LON qualifies in both directions, but LON-HKG-SHA-HKG-LON does not. The procedure is totally straightforward. When you check-in say that you are “in transit without visa”. There will probably be a separate lane at immigration in Shanghai. By the way, Chinese visa on arrival is only available in a very few ports (eg Shenzhen, Hainan).