China's transit visa-free rules: 24 hours and 240 hours

China runs two visa-free transit tiers. The 24-hour tier covers nationals of all other countries. The 240-hour tier covers 57 listed countries and runs to 10 days (NIA, Visa-Free Transit Policies, 20 August 2026).

The 240-hour tier replaced two shorter ones. On 17 December 2024 the stay for eligible transit travellers went from 72 and 144 hours to 240 hours, the port list went from 39 to 60, and the provinces covered went from 19 to 24 (announcement No. 12 of 2024, issued 17 December 2024; NIA release, posted 19 December 2024). Ports went from 60 to 65 on 5 November 2025 (announcement No. 4 of 2025, 3 November 2025). Countries went from 55 to 57 on 20 August 2026 (announcement No. 4 of 2026, 20 August 2026).

NIA’s site still carries a page presenting the 72-hour and 144-hour policies as current, listing 38 ports in 18 provinces for 54 countries (NIA, 3 July 2024). I read the two tiers below as the live ones, because the 2026 policy page states them.

The two tiers side by side

The 24-hour tier runs at all open exit-entry ports. A traveller who needs to leave the port’s restricted area inside those 24 hours applies to the port’s border inspection authority for a temporary entry permit. The application carries a passport or other international travel document, the connecting ticket, a temporary entry card, and answers to the officer’s questions (NIA policy page, 20 August 2026; NIA, interpretation of the 24-hour policy, 10 April 2019).

For the 240-hour tier the border inspection authority handles the temporary entry formalities at the port (NIA, announcement No. 4 of 2025, 3 November 2025). I found no advance-application step in either tier.

What the ticket has to show

The onward ticket is the part that decides eligibility. It has to run to a third country or region, and to carry a confirmed date and a confirmed seat (NIA, announcement No. 4 of 2025, appendix 1, 3 November 2025; the 2024 announcement as republished, 17 December 2024). NIA’s policy page puts it as “onward tickets with confirmed seats and departure dates” (NIA, 20 August 2026).

Two further conditions are printed: the travel document must carry at least three months of validity, and the traveller must meet the entry requirements of the destination country (NIA, announcement No. 4 of 2025, appendix 1, 3 November 2025; CCTV report of the 2024 announcement, 17 December 2024). NIA prints the same three-month floor as a ground on which border inspection will not issue a temporary entry permit under the 24-hour tier (NIA, 10 April 2019).

Activities allowed inside the permitted area and time are tourism, business, visits and family reunions. Work, study and news reporting need approval and a visa obtained before arrival (announcement No. 4 of 2026, 20 August 2026). Travellers covered by a mutual visa exemption agreement or by China’s unilateral visa-free policy follow those provisions instead (NIA, announcement No. 4 of 2025, 3 November 2025; the 2024 announcement, 17 December 2024).

Which passports qualify

The 240-hour list holds 57 countries, grouped by region in NIA’s own text (NIA and NIA in Chinese, both 20 August 2026).

The base list held 54 countries (NIA release, posted 19 December 2024). Indonesia took it to 55 (announcement No. 2 of 2025, 13 June 2025). Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam took it to 57 (announcement No. 4 of 2026, 20 August 2026). The 24-hour tier needs no list: it runs at all open ports for nationals of all other countries (NIA, 20 August 2026).

The 65 ports and where the traveller may stay

NIA publishes the port list as a table image in both languages. I transcribed the English image (NIA, 20 August 2026); it has 65 rows across 24 provincial-level regions, and the footnote repeats that cross-province travel is allowed inside the permitted areas.

Eighteen of the 24 regions are open in full (NIA, 20 August 2026). Six are partial:

The other eighteen are open province-wide: Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Hainan, Chongqing, Guizhou and Shaanxi. Guangdong’s ten rows carry an extra line in NIA’s table: exits are available at all open ports across the province. Shaanxi’s single port is Xi’an Xianyang International Airport; Guangxi’s four are three airports plus Beihai port.

Ports moved in two steps. The 21 added on 17 December 2024 took the total from 39 to 60 (NIA release, posted 19 December 2024). The five added on 5 November 2025 took it from 60 to 65: Guangzhou Pazhou ferry terminal, Hengqin port, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge port, Zhongshan port, and West Kowloon station on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong express rail link (announcement No. 4 of 2025, 3 November 2025).

At the border

Four situations block a temporary entry permit under the 24-hour tier, in NIA’s words: grounds in law or administrative regulations that bar entry; a passport or travel document valid for less than three months, or carrying a stamp refusing a Chinese visa; a record of illegal entry, illegal residence or illegal employment within five years; and a violation of accommodation registration rules within two years with serious consequences (NIA, 10 April 2019). Shanghai’s FAQ repeats the same four (english.shanghai.gov.cn, read 2026-10-12).

The arrival card is the one piece of paper most travellers meet. The temporary entry permit under the 24-hour tier comes with a temporary entry card to fill in (NIA, 10 April 2019). Since 20 November 2025 that card can be filed online, through the NIA website, its service platform, the 12367 app, WeChat and Alipay mini-programs, or a QR code at the port (NIA, 2 December 2025). Seven groups are exempt from the card, and 24-hour direct transits that stay inside the port area are one of them (Beijing municipal government, 5 November 2025).

Overstaying the permit has a written path: a sudden illness or force majeure sends the traveller to the public security exit-entry department for a stay document before the permit expires; without one, the border inspection authority or a public security organ at county level or above punishes the overstay under the law (NIA, 10 April 2019).

What these tiers are not

Six other rules sit next to the transit tiers. Each has its own conditions.

• Direct transit without border inspection. Since 5 November 2025, travellers holding a 24-hour connecting international ticket who change planes without leaving the airport do not go through immigration inspection at ten airports: Tianjin Binhai, Dalian Zhoushuizi, Nanjing Lukou, Fuzhou Changle, Qingdao Jiaodong, Wuhan Tianhe, Nanning Wuxu, Haikou Meilan, Chongqing Jiangbei and Kunming Changshui (announcement No. 4 of 2025, 3 November 2025).
• Unilateral visa-free entry. NIA’s compilation of countries whose ordinary passport holders may enter for business, tourism, family visits, exchanges or transit for up to 30 days stands at 50, dated 17 February 2026, and the 30 days count from 00:00 on the day after entry (NIA, 17 February 2026).
• Hainan. Ordinary passport holders from 61 countries may enter Hainan without a visa for up to 30 days for short visits, with work and study excluded (NIA, 20 August 2026).
• Cruise groups. A foreign tour group of two or more, organised and received by a Chinese travel agency, may enter visa-free at cruise ports in 13 cities, stay up to 15 days, and travel in 11 coastal provinces and municipalities plus Beijing, as long as the group leaves on the same ship (NIA, 20 August 2026).
• ASEAN tour groups and Hong Kong or Macao groups. ASEAN groups of two or more may enter visa-free for six days in Xishuangbanna through three ports, or in Guilin through its airport port; foreign groups assembled in Hong Kong or Macao may enter ten cities in Guangdong or Hainan for six days (NIA, 20 August 2026).
• Port visas. A traveller with an urgent need who could not get a visa at an embassy or consulate may apply for a port visa, either in advance or on arrival, at 99 ports in 73 cities (NIA, 26 February 2024). The transit visa category, G, is among those Chinese embassies issue (embassy visa categories, 14 November 2023).

How I checked this

Every figure above carries a source and a date, and I read the pages on 12 October 2026. The policy pages come from NIA’s own site in English and Chinese, both dated 20 August 2026. The three announcements behind the numbers are NIA No. 12 of 2024, No. 4 of 2025 and No. 4 of 2026; for the 2024 one I used the State Council document record for the issue date and document number, and a government reprint for the full text, because NIA’s own notice page for it shows a title and a date and no body in my browser, in both languages.

For the port table I read the image NIA publishes, and I cross-checked the partial areas against the 2024 announcement’s wording on Shanxi, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Fujian, Hubei and Shaanxi. The three-month validity floor, the third-country entry requirement and the 00:00 starting point for the 240-hour tier are printed in the appendix to announcement No. 4 of 2025.

What I could not check

• Whether “third country or region” covers Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan. NIA uses the phrase throughout without defining it on the transit pages I read, in either language. Two of the 65 entry ports sit on Hong Kong and Macao boundaries, which is why the question matters to me; the port list alone does not answer it.
• Whether departure must be from a designated port outside Guangdong. NIA’s table says exits are available at all open ports across Guangdong. For the other 23 regions the policy pages state the entry ports and the permitted areas, and I found no text on the exit port.
• Whether an onward ticket by road counts. NIA’s 24-hour text names international flights, ships and trains; the 240-hour text says “onward tickets” without naming a mode, and the 2024 announcement asks for a through-ticket without one either.
• What happens if the onward flight is cancelled inside the 240 hours. No page I read describes the case. The written route for staying longer covers illness and force majeure only.
• Whether every row of my transcription is right. The port list exists as an image, and I read it from the image. Cross-checks against provincial pages matched the areas I list as partial; I could not match all 65 rows to a text source, because no text version is published.