Tab TS · Pexels LicenseCountry Guide № 036 / 194 · Asia
China
Forty-five thousand kilometres of high-speed rail, and a country big enough to need it.
“Forty-five thousand kilometres of high-speed rail, and a country big enough to need it.”
China is the size of Europe and organised like a machine. The high-speed rail network - 45,000 kilometres of it, more than the rest of the world combined - has collapsed the distances: Beijing to Xi'an in four and a half hours, Shanghai to Guilin in eight. That single fact makes a three-week trip cover ground that used to take two months.
The country reopened to visitors slowly after 2023 and then moved decisively: unilateral visa-free entry now covers most European nationalities for 30 days, and the 240-hour transit rule covers many more. The remaining friction is digital rather than bureaucratic - almost everything runs through Alipay or WeChat, and getting those working with a foreign card before you fly is the single most useful hour of preparation you can do.
Chapter 01
Highlights
The Great Wall at Jinshanling
Restored at one end, wild and crumbling at the other, and far enough from Beijing to be nearly empty. Badaling is the one to avoid; Mutianyu is the compromise with a cable car.
The Terracotta Army
Eight thousand individually modelled figures in three pits outside Xi'an, discovered by farmers digging a well in 1974. Go at opening or in the last two hours.
The Li River and Yangshuo
Karst towers along the river from Guilin, best seen from a bamboo raft or a bicycle on the back roads. The landscape on the twenty-yuan note.
The Tibetan plateau
Lhasa's Potala Palace and the monasteries around it, at 3,650 metres. Tibet requires a permit, a booked tour and a guide - the arrangements are non-negotiable and take weeks.
Chapter 02
Entry requirements for China
Checking your passport…
up to 60 days · €128 / $138 · embassy application
60 days on arrival
Before you fly
The detail
- Maximum stay
- up to 60 days
- Process
- embassy application
- Fee
- €128 / $138
- Processing time
- Processing takes 4–10 days - apply with room to spare.
- Passport validity
- Most destinations want validity beyond your stay, and some want six months. Check yours against the return date.
- Onward travel
- Airlines may ask for a return or onward ticket at check-in.
- Arrival form
- Health and customs declaration via the China Customs mini-programme or the paper form, filed within 24 hours before arrival.
- Health
- No vaccinations required; hepatitis A and typhoid are standard advice, rabies for rural or long stays. Altitude is a genuine issue on the Tibetan plateau and in western Sichuan and Yunnan - Lhasa sits at 3,650 metres and people do get seriously ill. Do not drink tap water. Major-city hospitals have international wings that are good and expensive; rural facilities are basic. Insurance is essential.
- Money
- Mobile-first to an extreme degree. Set up Alipay and WeChat Pay with a foreign card before arrival. Carry a few hundred yuan in cash as a fallback - small vendors sometimes struggle to make change because they have not handled notes in years. ATMs work with foreign cards at the big banks. Tipping is not customary.
What changed
United States passports are not on China's unilateral visa-free trial, so tourism needs an L visa: the form is completed online first, but the application is lodged in person at a Chinese visa application centre and fingerprints are taken at the counter. Americans are normally issued a ten-year multiple-entry visa with the permitted duration of each stay printed on it, commonly 60 days - read the visa rather than assuming, because the officer sets that number and it varies. The fee is set reciprocally and is high for US nationals, in the region of US$140 before the centre adds its own service charge, and an across-the-board discount that ran to the end of 2025 may or may not still be in force. The 240-hour visa-free transit is the route most short visits should take instead: ten days, at a long list of designated ports, on a confirmed onward ticket to a third country or region and within the permitted provinces. Hotels register foreign guests automatically; a private address means reporting to the local police station within 24 hours, and Tibet needs a separate permit arranged weeks ahead through a licensed operator.
Check another destination with this passport →
Entry details: Editorial synthesis - National Immigration Administration announcements, Chinese mission visa guidance, 240-hour transit scheme (2025–2026) · compiled 15 Sept 2026
Who needs a visa for China
11 common passports| Passport | Requirement | Stay | Process |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Visa required | - | Embassy visit · €128 / $138 · 4–10 d |
| United Kingdom | Visa required | - | Embassy visit · €175 / $189 · 4–10 d |
| Germany | Visa-free | up to 30 days | No process · €0 / $0 |
| India | Visa required | - | No Other passports record yet |
| Brazil | Visa-free | up to 30 days | No Other passports record yet |
| Nigeria | Visa required | - | No Other passports record yet |
| Indonesia | Visa required | - | No Other passports record yet |
| Philippines | Visa required | - | No Other passports record yet |
| Vietnam | Visa required | - | No Other passports record yet |
| Egypt | Visa required | - | No Other passports record yet |
| Nepal | Visa required | - | No Other passports record yet |
Holding a passport that is not listed? The picker above answers for any of them. See where your passport takes you. Source: Passport Index, updated 14 Aug 2026.
Chapter 03
When to go
BestApr–May, Sep–Oct. AvoidJul–Aug.
Warm, clear and green - one of the two best months.
The band above each month is our editorial verdict - it weighs crowds, prices and access as well as weather. The line is average daily temperature, the bars are monthly rainfall. Select a month for the figures. Climate figures: ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo, 2005–2024 normals.
Chapter 04
What it costs
A day in China
Comfortable · sample day
≈ $70
Line items are real prices we track. The daily budget is an editorial estimate for this level, not their sum.
Where this sits among 244 countries we have costed
Two national holidays dominate: Chinese New Year (January or February) and Golden Week from 1 October. In both, domestic flights and hotels roughly double, trains sell out weeks ahead and every major site is at capacity. Outside those, prices are remarkably stable. Rail fares are fixed by class and distance and do not move at all.
Updated Aug 2026 · Editorial synthesis - China Railway published fares, municipal transport tariffs, hotel rate sampling (2025–2026) · confidence high
Excludes international flights - they depend on where you fly from.
Chapter 05
Regions to know
5Beijing & the north
The Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the hutongs - plus Pingyao's walled Ming town and Datong's Buddhist grottoes.
The Yangtze & the east
Shanghai, the canal towns of Suzhou and Hangzhou's West Lake, and the Yellow Mountains at Huangshan.
The southwest
Chengdu's pandas and food, Yunnan's Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge, and the karst rivers around Yangshuo.
The northwest & Silk Road
Xi'an's terracotta army, the Gansu corridor, Dunhuang's cave temples and the deserts of Xinjiang.
Tibet & the high plateau
Lhasa and the monasteries at 3,650 metres - permit, booked tour and guide required, arranged weeks ahead.
Chapter 06
Practical guide
Getting there
Beijing (PEK and PKX), Shanghai (PVG) and Guangzhou (CAN) take direct flights from most European hubs in 10–12 hours, with Chinese carriers often cheaper than European ones since they can overfly Russia. Chengdu, Xi'an and Kunming take some direct services. Overland entry from Vietnam, Laos, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Hong Kong is straightforward with the right paperwork.
Entry formalities
Health and customs declaration via the China Customs mini-programme or the paper form, filed within 24 hours before arrival.
Getting around
High-speed rail for everything under about 1,200 km - book through Trip.com or the Railway 12306 app with your passport, and collect or scan at the station. Domestic flights for the long diagonals. Metro systems in every major city are excellent and cheap; use DiDi for taxis. Passport is required to buy any train ticket, enter stations and check into hotels, and not every hotel is licensed to take foreign guests - filter for it when booking.
Money & costs
Mobile-first to an extreme degree. Set up Alipay and WeChat Pay with a foreign card before arrival. Carry a few hundred yuan in cash as a fallback - small vendors sometimes struggle to make change because they have not handled notes in years. ATMs work with foreign cards at the big banks. Tipping is not customary.
Safety
Very low violent crime and street safety is excellent, including for solo travellers at night. The risks are bureaucratic and digital rather than physical: carry your passport at all times (it is legally required), register your address if staying in a private home, and be aware that photography around military sites and some government buildings is prohibited. Traffic is the biggest physical hazard. Air quality in northern cities in winter can be poor.
Health
No vaccinations required; hepatitis A and typhoid are standard advice, rabies for rural or long stays. Altitude is a genuine issue on the Tibetan plateau and in western Sichuan and Yunnan - Lhasa sits at 3,650 metres and people do get seriously ill. Do not drink tap water. Major-city hospitals have international wings that are good and expensive; rural facilities are basic. Insurance is essential.
SIM & internet
An eSIM or international roaming is the simplest answer and routes around the Great Firewall; local SIMs require passport registration and sit behind the block. 5G coverage is excellent nationwide, including on high-speed trains. Wifi is universal but often requires a Chinese phone number to authenticate, which is a recurring frustration.
Chapter 07
Driving
Almost no visitor drives here, and the licence rule is the reason. The rail network makes it unnecessary anyway - the only common exception is a hired car with driver in Yunnan or Xinjiang.
Rules change - verify with an official source before you rent.
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Become ExplWorld Verified →Chapter 08
Itineraries through this country
Chapter 09
From the Journal
Chapter 10
Before you go
ChinaChapter 11
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a visa now?
Most likely not. China's unilateral visa-free policy covers the great majority of European nationalities plus several others for stays up to 30 days, and has been extended repeatedly. Separately, the 240-hour (10-day) visa-free transit applies to many more nationalities arriving at listed ports with an onward ticket to a third country. Both are policy decisions that could change - confirm your own passport against the current list before booking.
How do I pay for things?
With your phone. Cash is accepted by law but is genuinely awkward in practice, and cards work only at hotels and international chains. Alipay and WeChat Pay both now accept foreign cards - set them up and verify them before you leave, because doing it on arrival without a working local number is painful. Alipay also embeds train booking, ride-hailing and translation, which makes it the single most useful app in the country.
What about the internet?
Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, most Western news sites and many others are blocked. If you need them, install and test a VPN before you arrive - you cannot download one once you are there. International roaming is an alternative that routes around the block. Note that VPN use sits in a legal grey area; it is normal among visitors and residents but not formally permitted.