RTW - Chinese Visa

Carrolli

Hi,

My girlfriend an I will be starting a round the world trip in Sept and first stop on the list is China. Starting at Beijing and ending with Hong Kong. We plan to take our time travelling through China (2 months) and are now looking to get the visa's sorted. I have been told recently that I would need to show my accommodation for everywhere we plan to stay. Is this true and does it not seem a bit excessive to have to show that much of an itinerary. Is there anyway around this?


Any advice or tips would be much appreciated.

halkar

As long as you have your entry and exit flights sorted you should be ok with first few days of hotel booking when you arrive. You will need 60 day visa possibly valid for 6 months. Or you may get 30 day visa valid for 3 months and extend for another 30 days when in China (need to apply five days before expiry). If it is your first time in China it may be difficult to get any more than 3 months visa but it is possible as long as you have the itinary and flights sorted. If you will arrive HK via train or boat it may be difficult to book these before getting visa. Check with the embassy they should be able to help.

Challo

Yeah the visa application asks for some accommodation names but write down any few from your guide book and you'll be grand.

tomfoolery60

Another option is to just book some accommodation that you can cancel for free and include that with your application - so long as you have onward travel plans you should be fine. You might need to include booking confirmations with your application so simply writing the names might not work. I think the standard visa is 30 days too so there might be more work involved in a 60 day visa.

HK has its own immigration and as an EU citizen you should be able to get a visa on arrival for free (much easier!)