China - Tourist Visa

Jimmy81

Has anyone applied for a Chinese tourist visa in Dublin lately?
I have read that there are new restrictions in place for applications due to the Olympics.

I am planning on travelling on the Trans-Mongolian railway in October so will need a visa for China to cover me for then.

jf852003

Hi
I'm travelling on the trans siberian in july. i got my visa last week. there is new regulations in place. you have to show proof of entry and exit and accomodation for every night in china. we just used emails confirming train/slight/hotel bookings. it was fine. They are quite helpful at the chinese embassy. we actually forgot one of our hotel booking confirmations and they took our word for it.
The russian embassy on the other hand is a different story. The queues are huge, they have one guy on the counter and he is very slow and goes out of his way to find problems with applications. anything out of place and he'll reject it.

cathaldinneen

Does anybody know if it is possible to apply for a Chinese Visa in Thailand ?

I'm going to SEA in September on the way to Australia and thinking about popping into China. I'm not 100% about it yet so I don't want to waste my money on a visa I wont use plus with all the new visa requirements (accom, plane tickets etc)

Jimmy81

jf852003 wrote: »

Hi
I'm travelling on the trans siberian in july. i got my visa last week. there is new regulations in place. you have to show proof of entry and exit and accomodation for every night in china. we just used emails confirming train/slight/hotel bookings. it was fine. They are quite helpful at the chinese embassy. we actually forgot one of our hotel booking confirmations and they took our word for it.
The russian embassy on the other hand is a different story. The queues are huge, they have one guy on the counter and he is very slow and goes out of his way to find problems with applications. anything out of place and he'll reject it.

For your stay in China, do you know exactly what you are doing, or can you just show the hotel reservations and then go off and do what/travel where you want?
I have a fair idea of the places I want to visit, but I don't have a rigid schedule in mind, i.e. where I will be for every night of my stay.

Bacchus

Sry for dragging up an old thread but myself and my gf are heading over to China in April for 6 weeks. Flying into Beijing, traveling (by land) through the country to south where we'll be crossing the border into Vietnam.

What's the story with the rules for entering the country? We only have a flight in. Our flight leaving SE Asia is from Bang Kok. Also, we've nothing booked as far as hostels/hotels go. Planning on just winging it out there and see where we end up.

When do you have to show proof of entry/exit/accommodation? Is it when you get your visa or on actually entering the country? Should I be prepared to run into some hassle regarding this?

jackbhoy

Bacchus wrote: »

What's the story with the rules for entering the country? We only have a flight in. Our flight leaving SE Asia is from Bang Kok. Also, we've nothing booked as far as hostels/hotels go. Planning on just winging it out there and see where we end up.
When do you have to show proof of entry/exit/accommodation? Is it when you get your visa or on actually entering the country? Should I be prepared to run into some hassle regarding this?

You list details on Visa application form and attach hotel/transport confirmations. In reality you can book 1 or 2 nights in cheapest (3 euros a night) hostel in Beijing and use that confirmation. They don't ask about rest of nights. They do ask where you plan to visit, just list few major cities (not Lhasa/Tibet as can cause you hassle), they don't need day by day break down.

For entry details we just put down train from Mongolia. They are more concerned with you exiting after visa period so for this we booked 20e AirAsia flight from Macau to save hassle, you could also just say train to Hanoi or Hong Kong and I'm pretty sure you'll be ok. We travelled shortly after Olympics so they might have relaxed rules a little by now.

As another poster pointed out Chinese Embassy is breeze compared to Russians. I queued for 4.5 hours just to drop off appplication and I was last one he accepted (after I stuffed under the window as he was leaving) about 50 people behind me were just left standing there as he walked off at 12 noon on the dot, good old Russian customer service

Bacchus

Cheers for the info jackbhoy. The lady in Trailfinders recommended we book a flight out of China too a proof of exit. May look at getting a flight from southern China to Han Noi. Might actually use it too

I'll book the first few nights in Beijing so and use that in the application.