240-Hour Visa-Free Transit Guide: Eligibility and Itinerary Planning for a 10-Day Stay (Updated August 2026)

The 240-hour (10-day) visa-free transit is one of the most convenient entry policies China has introduced in recent years: travelers holding passports of eligible countries who are transiting through China to a third country or region can stay for up to 10 days without a visa. For passengers connecting between Europe or the Americas and Southeast Asia, Japan, or Korea via China, it effectively adds a full stopover to a transit itinerary.

The list of eligible countries was expanded again on August 20, 2026, adding Vietnam and Kyrgyzstan and bringing the total to 57 countries: 40 in Europe (the UK, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Italy, the Nordic countries, etc.); 6 in the Americas (the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile); 9 in Asia (South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Brunei, the UAE, Qatar, Indonesia, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan); 2 in Oceania (Australia, New Zealand).

Three Hard Requirements

1. Passport: a valid ordinary passport in your own name, valid for at least 3 months.
2. Onward ticket: a ticket to a third country or region with confirmed date and seat. Note the "confirmed seat" — open tickets and waitlisted tickets do not qualify.
3. Purpose of transit: tourism, business, family visits, and visits are all acceptable; activities that require prior approval, such as work, study, or news reporting, are not covered, and a visa is still required.

Neither your origin nor your destination has to be among the 57 countries. For example, a US passport holder flying Singapore–Beijing–Tokyo also qualifies.

Entry and Stay Rules

• You may enter through any of the 65 ports of entry open to international traffic across 24 provincial-level administrative divisions and exit through a different eligible port — Shanghai in, Beijing out is no problem.
• The stay is counted from 00:00 on the day after entry, for a maximum of 240 hours. For example, if you enter on June 1, you must leave by June 11 at the latest.
• Your movements are limited to the designated area corresponding to your port of entry (usually the province of the port plus specified neighboring provinces and municipalities); cross-province itineraries must be planned within the permitted area.
• At entry, use the visa-free transit lane at border inspection and state that you are using the 240-hour visa-free transit; once your passport and onward ticket are checked, you are waved through. There is no visa application form to fill in, and your passport gets an entry stamp.

Airlines usually verify transit eligibility at check-in, so print your onward ticket booking or keep it ready on your phone. If an airline's ground staff are unfamiliar with the policy, ask them to confirm with border inspection — this is standard procedure.

There is also a 24-hour visa-free transit open to all nationalities: as long as you transit without leaving the port's restricted area, no visa is required regardless of nationality. To leave the airport and head into the city, you must qualify under the 240-hour policy.

Three Classic Ways to Plan the 10 Days

• Single-city deep dive: enter and exit through the same port (e.g., Seoul–Shanghai–Bangkok); 10 days is enough to cover Shanghai plus nearby Suzhou and Hangzhou.
• Two-city combo: enter and exit through adjacent ports within the permitted area, for example Beijing in, Shanghai out, connected by high-speed rail.
• Land port combination: fly to Hong Kong first, then enter through the Hong Kong–Shenzhen land port (land ports also qualify) and start your trip from Guangdong.

Build slack into your itinerary: if a flight delay or a rebooking invalidates your onward ticket, your visa-free transit eligibility lapses with it. Avoid packing the last day too full.

How It Relates to the 30-Day Visa-Free Entry

A sizable share of the 57 countries (France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Australia, etc.) are also on the 30-day unilateral visa-free list, and travelers from these countries are better off using the 30-day visa-free entry directly — longer stays and no provincial limits on movement. The 240-hour visa-free transit mainly serves nationalities outside the 30-day list, most typically the United States, Canada, and Mexico. For the differences between the two and how to choose, see "China's 30-Day Visa-Free Policy Guide".