{"id":6154,"date":"2014-09-15T17:49:18","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T00:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/?p=6154"},"modified":"2014-09-15T17:49:18","modified_gmt":"2014-09-16T00:49:18","slug":"know-china-72-hour-transit-without-visa-rules-aka-twitter-lifesaver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2014\/09\/know-china-72-hour-transit-without-visa-rules-aka-twitter-lifesaver\/","title":{"rendered":"Know Your China 72-Hour Transit Without Visa Rules (aka Twitter is a Lifesaver!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Workers<\/a>i had one transportation goal for my upcoming Asia trip: stop in Shanghai long enough to ride the maglev<\/a>,\u00a0for i am a high speed rail fan* as much as i am a fan of flying. and now that you can\u00a0stay in China for up to 72 hours without getting a visa, i was set! yay! this transit without visa (TWOV) is great for several reasons:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. tourist visas are expensive — $140<\/a> for US citizens<\/li>\n
  2. the last time i tried to get a Chinese visa<\/a>, the consulate\u00a0returned the wrong passport and i missed my flight<\/li>\n
  3. i have this irrational fear of visiting China without my parents. the two times i’ve been before, they were always traveling with me and were my buffers\/interpreters\/navigators\/planners. i have been to countless countries where i don’t speak the local language, but for some reason visiting China intimidates me, so i’m ok with minimizing my time there.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    what i knew about the 72-hour transit without visa rule is that you have to a) be a citizen of certain countries (US, \u2713), b) be coming in from one country and departing to another (\u2713), c) traveling by air (\u2713), and d) visiting (and not leaving) a certain list of cities (Shanghai, \u2713) — full list of rules and a FAQ here<\/a><\/strong>. i booked an award ticket (route partially shown — basically going to South Korea for a week, then Japan for a week):<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>

    SFO-PVG-ICN (SF-Shanghai (overnight)-Seoul)<\/p><\/div>\n

    the only bad thing is that i was flying on United’s not-so-fantastic 747s — at least i was able to get BusinessFirst seats thanks to the generosity of my million-miler mom (#spoiled, i know, but to be honest i thought the miles were coming out of my account as that’s what the agent told me when i upgraded). i saw a short while ago that business class availability had opened up on Asiana (a South Korean airline) and i was excited to be able to check out their Business Smartium<\/a>\u00a0class, which even without looking you can tell is better than United’s dated (and cramped) 747 BusinessFirst.<\/p>\n

    so, i was now booked like this:<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>

    SFO-ICN-PVG-ICN (SF-Seoul-Shanghai-Seoul)<\/p><\/div>\n

    totally pleased with myself for snagging this, i didn’t think anything of it until today, when i saw this tweet:<\/p>\n

    \n

    Any one used China's 72h transit visa yet? What docs do you need? Guessing just print out of departing flight confirmation.<\/p>\n

    — Edward Russell (@e_russell) September 15, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n