My question is this, has anyone yet tried or are going to try to go to China on this 3 day visa free stay and then return to Taiwan? As today is only the 5th I assume not many people have planned this yet. It appears that a roundtrip ticket even on a foreign passport is not going to qualify for this program. A couple of travel agencies I have called don’t even know about this yet.
According to this website: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/visa-free.htm there has to be three countries involved, which would mean it’s impossible for us to come and go through Taiwan. The only solution I see is adding HK to the route and not showing anyone the connecting flight back to Taiwan. In otherwords TPE-PVG-HKG-TPE. Any thoughts? or did I just answer my own question…
Well my thinking was to use HK on the return as a third country and just simply not show immigration the ticket from HK back to Taiwan, or stay in HK for a day, but I don’t know how well that would go over though as HK is part of China . They may not accept it as you bring up. To Bangkok though probably no problem, but I wonder how much attention they will pay to all the stamps from Taiwan in our passports. I have many.
My question is this, has anyone yet tried or are going to try to go to China on this 3 day visa free stay and then return to Taiwan? As today is only the 5th I assume not many people have planned this yet. It appears that a roundtrip ticket even on a foreign passport is not going to qualify for this program. A couple of travel agencies I have called don’t even know about this yet.
According to this website: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/visa-free.htm there has to be three countries involved, which would mean it’s impossible for us to come and go through Taiwan. The only solution I see is adding HK to the route and not showing anyone the connecting flight back to Taiwan. In otherwords TPE-PVG-HKG-TPE. Any thoughts? or did I just answer my own question…[/quote]
All I can tell you is that the visa-free 48 hours stay in Shanghai that I always use when travelling to/from Europe has the same requirements and is has never been a problem to travel to/from Taiwan using that one. I never did “TW-China-TW” but my guess is that it’ll work. The Chinese never even check their oen entry stamp, nor will you get a exit stamp when you usee this visa-free stay (I never did on my passport). It also does not matter to them whether you go to HK or Taiwan. All it matters is that you won’t go around in China without a visa, except for Beijing and Shanghai. If you fly to visa-free areas (or areas when you have right of entry) like HK or Taiwan you will be fine. Taiwan amd China might act all though about sovereignity at the high levels, but for practical purposes they both act like they are separate countries (e.g. one cannot count days spent in China towards the amount of time spent in the ROC for taxes calculations and viceversa).
EDIT: it turns out what I’ve been enjoying so far is the same visa-free stay that article is about. It works with Taiwan. I did “Milan - stay in Shanghai - Taipei” and the other way around a number of times with no problems. Also (and this was shocking!) my Iranian gf got the same visa-free stay when we recently transited through Shanghai in our way to Europe. All we had to do was show the confirmed flight to Milan and they gave us the free entry stamp. It all happened in under 10 minutes, no hassle attached.
The new policy I am talking about is a 72 hour stay in either Beijing or Shanghai, and there seems to be a police station visit within 24 hour after arrival with this one. This new policy started on January 1, 2013. I am not familar with the 48 hour stay you are referring to at all. Perhaps that was an old policy being change this year, I have no idea. Or there are two policies, the transit visa you mention and now the 72 hour visit the article is talking about. My question was can I do a TPE-PVG-TPE? I am guessing not as they say a third country seems has to be involved in this so it wouldn’t qualify at all, I would have to stop in HK or probably another country outside of Greater China. I was sort of hoping that being I have neigher a China or Taiwan passport that they may allow it. But until now I still don’t know, I am just assuming. The policy is so new that probably no one here has given it a try yet.
What I meant to say is that the former 48h stay in Shanghai is the same policy you’ve been talking about, which has now been extended to Beijing and made longer (72 hours. Sources: my consulate in Shanghai and the Chinese hotline for visas). The police visit was mentioned in the former policy too, but I never had it (I did this like 8 or 9 times already). I shared my experience because my guess is that the standard practices of the former situation will apply to the newer. About the third country thing, the fact that Taiwan counts as “third country” (otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy the visa-free stay in Shanghai) and also that doing, e.g. Italy-Shanghai-Italy works (two countries only involved. Done it), makes me think that Tw-China-Tw is most likely to work out of sheer transitive logic. This condition would prevent you to fly anywhere else in China after a visa-free stay, even on transit. Here is a real-life example of what a German friend tries (in vain). He flew to Shanghai, stayed one day, then tried to fly to Beijing to catch a plane to Frankfurt (all flights confirmes, 95 minutes only between landing in Beijing and taking off to Frankfurt). It did not work, for you need at least a transit visa to do that, i.e. leave Shanghai and fly to Beijing through Chinese territory. On a related note, with the former shanghainese policy one was allowed to leave Shanghai from either airports (Pudong or Hongqiao) or SEAPORTS, regardless of how one came on in the first place (my parents and I have done this on different occasions).
Interesting. Thanks for sharing and elaborating on your thoughts and experience. Indeed very interesting. I had no idea they had that 48 hour thing before with some countries and were only expanding it. I am just hesitant to try TW-Shanghai-TW because in Shanghai they could potentially deny me entry as I don’t have a ticket to a thrid country. I would essentially be flying to Shanghai to visit and then flying back to Taiwan to go back to work. My wife sometimes has business trips to China so I was hoping to finally have an excuse to go to China for a few days and do so without the visa, as many people know the visa fees to get into China are greatly expensive, especially if you are only going once, it’s like US$300 a pop. So, based on what you wrote above, it is very likely I could visit Shanghai or Beijing for 3 days without any hassles. Though as I have a visa for Taiwan, wouldn’t they question this? It surprises me that you never got questioned about not going to a police station also on your way out. I wonder what they would do if you didn’t visit the police station, not let you leave? Forbid you to come back? hmmmm
I stick to my guns on this: Chinese authorities know full well that Taiwan is a foreign country de facto, even if not de jure, and their whole system is set to act accordingly. They never give a damn whether or not you have a taiwanese visa, nor do they bat an eyelid when they see your ARC. The problem of Taiwan’s status rarely comes out on the every day level. Otherwise and by the logic that Taiwan is part of China, people should have problems when leaving China for Taiwan on a visa about to expire ('cause they wouldn’t really be leaving China) or they should be able to re-enter China multiple times from Taiwan on a single entry, still valid, visa, 'cause they never left the country in the first place. To avoid a whole host of problems and paradoxes, Taiwan is a foreign country for visa issues.
From the article: “Residents in most of Europe as well as the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore are among those able to take advantage of the visa-free stay.”
Glad to see the USA is included. I’ve been longing to make a quick visit to Shanghai, but paying US$200 for a visa is ridiculous.
Novaspes, quite funny analysis of the whole situation.
[quote=“Chris”]From the article: “Residents in most of Europe as well as the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore are among those able to take advantage of the visa-free stay.”
Glad to see the USA is included. I’ve been longing to make a quick visit to Shanghai, but paying US$200 for a visa is ridiculous.[/quote]
It’s closer to US$300, unless you found a better price, if so do share, and yes it is ridiculous! But they charge us what we charge them, so… fair or not, it is what it is. So yes I am also delighted to see this. China made it visa free for many many countries actually. But I am still inclided to wait for someone else to try this Taiwan-Shanghai or Beijing and then back to Taiwan and let me know what happend.
Err… how is my comment lacking. Ok so let me put it this way… Your analysis is funny because it’s true. And a very accurate description of the whole situation. The whole issue with China believing Taiwan belongs to China, but yet for the purpose of a visa China considers Taiwan a country, it is indeed true and quite ironic. Though Tibet, HK, and Macau do the same thing. One China five visas, it’s all quite funny how it is handled, but there reasons behind all of it of course. Does that fill the void? I don’t know how else to explain it, your comment was funny, and there was no bad meaning intended towards you, the situation as you explain it is funny becuase it is true and I never considered it quite like that. I hope this is clear. Thanks again for your feedback.
Ok just passing on some information I just got from Lion Travel, they told me that Taiwan-Shanghai-Taiwan is not allowed, they said it is a transist visa so China cannot be the main destintation. They said that immigration may not let me through and it would be my risk at that point. I’m just passing on what they said. Perhaps the policy has changed since last year on the 48 hour visa, maybe they got more strict, or maybe it’s still the same, whereby no one cares. I am not sure I am ready to risk paying for the ticket and then not be allowed in. We’ll see. Have also asked another China visa service office to check for me.
LOL, I thought maybe that is what you thought. No no, I was totally agreeing with you! Thanks again for your information.
As for the 72 hour stuff though, I have spoken to a bunch of people now and I have been told basically that no, I have to be traveling to a third country, not a roundtrip ticket… So… I will wait to see if someone else tries this new policy and what the results are, but it seems something has changed.
It’s also my understanding that this new 72 hr rule (and its preceding 48 hr rule) is only for Transit passengers. Your route must be CountryA-China-CountryB. It’s possible that Tw-PVG-Tw might work, but would depend on the immigration official and I think that’s risky. There’s no problem with it being Tw per se, just that you’re not actually transiting.
@ Novaspes, curious re your Italy-PVG-Italy travel. Was that a simple return ticket, with 2 days inbetween, and you arrived with no visa?
I just got a TWOV (Transit without Visa) from both Shanghai and Hangzhou.
Joined the usual immigration queues, but once at the desk the official had to call a supervisor, who came and took my passport and onward ticket away. Took about 5 mins. At Shanghai, they also wanted a copy of the plane ticket that I’d just flown in on, but at Hangzhou they didn’t bother. Mind you, my incoming flight details were on my landing card anyway, inside the passport.
At Shanghai, they gave me the large box stamp on entry (Left), and the hexagon on exit.
At Hangzhou, I only got the hexagon at entry (Bottom Right), and no box :s. This caused a bit of confusion when I flew out, where in the end I got no stamp at all!
Yes, my trip was basically “come in, stay 36 hours, go back to Italy”. The way I see it, Chinese authorities don’t give a damn if country A and country B are one and the same, as long as you’re getting out of China within the allotted timeframe. It makes sense if you think they came up with this policy to encourage short-time business visits: not everyone has a third country to go to, rather most travellers want to go back where they came from. I believe someone has to try the “TW-Shanghai-TW” for anyone to be sure, though.
With many flights to/from China now originating/completing at Songshan Airport in downtown Taipei, this could make for some nice, convenient, and cheap (no need to spend $ on visa) 3-day weekend get-aways or maybe even visa runs. That is “IF” a third country is not required. If a third country is required, then maybe stop in Hong Kong on the return trip.
And "if’ the airline in Taipei lets you board without a visa.
Taiwan-Shanghai-Taiwan visa free Sounds nice, but looks like it won’t work, at least for the time being.
Here it is, straight from the horse’s mouth: shanghai.gov.cn/shanghai/nod … 70720.html
Still, it’s a move in the right direction.
I read somewhere (can’t find the article now) that you can get a 24 hour visa free transit visit for Guangzhou. Does anyone know any other cities in China offering something like this, even if it’s for 24 hours?
Thanks for replying.