China

Two separate routes in. The unilateral visa-free policy admits ordinary passport-holders from around 50 countries for up to 30 days (expanded from 15 in late 2024; the UK and Canada were added in February 2026) — most of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea — but not the United States, whose citizens still need a tourist visa. Americans and others instead use the 240-hour (10-day) visa-free transit, which requires an onward ticket to a third country and staying within the designated areas. Since late 2025 a digital arrival card can be filed online before you land.

The thing to watch: the 30-day unilateral policy is set to expire on 31 December 2026. China has renewed it each year so far, each time via a November announcement, so a 2027 extension is widely expected but not yet confirmed — so check your nationality’s status close to travel. The 240-hour transit policy is separate and standing, with no expiry, so it isn’t affected by that deadline.

Visa and transit rules here move faster than almost anything else on the site — the country lists, the day-counts and the expiry have all changed within the last two years. Treat every figure in this section as a prompt to check the current official rule for your passport before booking, not a fixed fact.

The Great Firewall blocks Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, X and much else, so sort connectivity before you fly: a travel eSIM that routes data outside China is the reliable way to keep your normal apps working (check that the provider actually routes internationally — not all do), with a VPN installed before arrival as a pairing or fallback. For payments, link a foreign card to Alipay or WeChat Pay (now possible without a Chinese bank account) — QR pay is everywhere and cash is clumsy. For trains, the world-leading high-speed rail uses passport e-tickets booked on the official 12306 app or Trip.com; book 10–15 days ahead for popular routes.

China’s high-speed rail is the default way to move between the headline cities — roughly 45,000km of track, the world’s largest network, and on the core corridors it beats flying once you count airport time. City metros are excellent, cheap and take mobile pay or a transit QR. Keep flights for the long diagonals — Beijing to the far south-west, or out to Xinjiang and Tibet (which carry their own permit rules). Everything runs on your passport, so carry it: it’s your train ticket, your hotel check-in and your sightseeing pass.

The set pieces are extraordinary. For the Great Wall near Beijing, Mutianyu is the best all-rounder (long restored section, cable car, far less chaos than Badaling), Badaling the most famous and most crowded, and Jinshanling the wild, photogenic hiking choice. The Forbidden City must be booked online in advance — a daily cap of 40,000 means tickets release about 7 days out and sell out, you enter with the passport used to book, and it’s closed Mondays.

Xi’an’s Terracotta Army (UNESCO-listed, discovered 1974) and the karst rivers of Guilin/Yangshuo and the Avatar-like sandstone pillars of Zhangjiajie round out a classic route, with Shanghai and the Bund for the modern face and Chengdu’s panda base to the west. Most major sights use passport-linked timed entry, so book ahead.

Think in regions. Beijing and the north are the imperial heart; Xi’an the ancient centre; Shanghai and the east the modern, easy-entry face, with Hangzhou’s West Lake nearby. The scenic south is the karst country around Guilin and Yangshuo and the sandstone towers of Zhangjiajie; the west is Chengdu, pandas and the gateway to Tibet and the mountains (which carry their own permits). A first trip usually strings Beijing–Xi’an–Shanghai by rail, adding one scenic region.

Treat "Chinese food" as a dozen cuisines, not one. The Eight Great Cuisines split the country: numbing-hot Sichuan and hotpot in the west, Cantonese dim sum and roast meats in the south, Peking duck and wheat dumplings in the north, and the sweeter Jiangnan cooking of the Shanghai region, home of xiaolongbao soup dumplings. The rule is simple: eat the local style wherever you are, and lean on photo menus and translation apps (Google Translate is blocked — use Pleco or Baidu).

Aim for spring (April–May) or autumn (September–October) — mild and dry, the best all-round weather. Summers are hot and humid, with typhoons on the south-east coast; northern winters are cold. Above all, avoid the two national travel crushes, when flights and trains sell out and hotels double or triple: National Day “Golden Week” (1–7 October) and Spring Festival / Lunar New Year (6 February in 2027), whose roughly 40-day migration is the largest annual human movement on earth.

• you want the Great Wall without the scrumSkipBadaling during Golden Week (1–7 Oct)GoMutianyu or Jinshanling on a weekday outside the holiday
• you’re moving between citiesSkiptravelling anywhere around Spring Festival (6 Feb 2027)Gospring or autumn, when rail isn’t a national scrum
• you expect your usual apps to workSkiparriving unprepared and relying on local networksGoan internationally-routed eSIM (and a VPN) set up before you fly

Dodge the two national travel crushes at all costs. During National Day “Golden Week” (1–7 October) and the Chinese New Year period, hundreds of millions of people travel at once: trains and flights sell out weeks ahead, the headline sights are overwhelmed, and hotel rates double or triple. If your dates are flexible, avoid both windows entirely; if they aren’t, book intercity transport and timed-entry tickets (the Forbidden City above all) the moment the booking window opens.

English is modest outside tourist and hotel settings, so a translation app is essential — but Google Translate is blocked, so use an offline-capable or Chinese app (Pleco, Baidu) or lean on your eSIM. Tap water is not potable — drink bottled or boiled. Plugs are 220V, mainly Type A (flat two-pin) and Type I (three-pin), so US/Japan 110V devices need a dual-voltage check. Carry a little cash as backup even though mobile pay rules — a few situations still want it.

A legal rather than criminal caveat: street crime against tourists is rare and the cities feel very safe, but the US rates China Level 2 and both the US and UK warn of exit bans and the risk of arbitrary detention tied to business, civil or security disputes — an exit ban can surface only when you try to leave. For ordinary sightseeing this is background, but keep documentation clean and your affairs uncomplicated.