Visa / entering China recommendation

Hi all may be this information might help some people: apply for Chinese visa in your home country strictly. Chinese don't like to give out visa to foreigners for example in Mongolia and Hongkong. It always depends on country to country relations plus other factors. Also note that in some cases like mine they even created trouble entering the 72 hrs non visa transit permit. So as far as you are obedient enough and don't want to go to xintiang or tibet you might have no troubles... good luck with traveling and bare in mind China is not designed for backpackers solo travelers- it's hard to control them :-))

Do you think it's possible to ask for a visa without booking (all) your accommodations in advance ?
Backpackers travel.
Thanks.

Michel

China is a terrific country for solo travellers. The public transport is good, there are lots of good hostels and cheap hotels and a population of helpful people. And it's quite inexpensive.

To apply for a visa, don't panic. All you have to do is make a few unconfirmed bookings on websites like bookings .com and then change your bookings as it suits you once tou have the visa. No one is going to check that you stayed in the places you said. I have never paid for a flight or made bookings for accommodation before I got my visa, just listed accommodation and booked a confirmed flight. Some agencies are tougher than others in how rigorous you have to be, but even then it's not really difficult.

Thanks.
My aim is to visit Yunnan next spring.

Michel

Af # 2. In many countries like mine (Holland), you need to show your flight tickets into China and as proof you are leaving China again. Not showing a copy of your e-tickets means not getting the Chinese visa. And yes, you can make the hotel bookings at f.I. Booking.com. And cancel them after getting the Chinese visa. Once you are in China nobody checks these bookings.

Actually, Chinese authorities are now asking flight tickets as a prerequisite for visa issuing in most countries, especially the outbound one. Anyway, even this detail is not such a huge problem. By the time when one plans to travel, he/she will have a ticket to China and if the return ticket, i.e. for travel that takes you out of mainland China, is a problem, you can enclose some cheap ticket like the one to Hong Kong or some other nearby destination costing less than 100 EUR. They are definitely not so strict as some people report.

By the way, China is not enforcing any measure against backpacker way of travel. The only entity that really tries to block the entrance and sojourn of backpackers is Macau. Speaking generally, I definitively agree with @violets because China is a country quite suitable for solo backpacking travel and I would like to add just one good reason to visit it and it is high level of safety.

In fact, I'm from Belgium and I want to go there as independent traveller.
I don't want to book my accommodations in advance because I've never done in the past for my different travels and I will not be free to move as I want.

Michel

Thanks.
To be honest, I will check later because I'm focused now on my two next trips (autumn).
My aim is to visit "only" Yunnan next spring. At least of part of it because it's huge and I want to visit properly.
Best regards.

Michel

Actually, at the time of your application you will have to show your accommodations along with a short intended itinerary. Anyway, this is not a problem, but in reality just a formality. There are several agencies (Booking.com, Ctrip...) that have fairly liberal cancellation policy, so after you receive your visa, you will just cancel all of your accommodation bookings and proceed in China to explore Yunnan in the way as you wish. You are right about this Chinese province because it is larger than Italy and has also comparable population.

Merci/Thanks

Michel

Hello Michel,
I travel to China two times a year as independant traveller and will travel to Yunnan in the autumn of this year again. I always show my flight tickets with my visa application. I also give them my hotel bookings and the itinerary for my whole travel. But after getting the visa I cancel the hotel bookings. And I don't follow the itinerary I gave with my visa application. Once you are in China, no one checks where you go and in which hotel you stay. It's really no problem. You can travel in China where you want to go. So backpacking is no problem at all.

Seems all of this is covered in the Chinese Visa thread that is stuck to the top of the forum page.

As always it is important to understand that the itinerary/documentation that you show to get your visa can be completely different from what you actually do in China.

I have always applied with a bland itinerary in and out of Beijing with a long stay in a refundable hotel. Always gotten the visa and then always done something entirely differently.

Thanks.
You show the hotel booking for all the nights or only few of them (even if you cancel them later) ?

Michel

Thanks.
You show the hotel booking for all the nights or only few of them (even if you cancel them later) ?

Some consulates no longer ask for hotel bookings, but I always have them just in case. If asked I always show them the whole thing, as it is one page. 45 nights at Peking Hostel from XX/XX to YY/YY etc.

"The only entity that really tries to block the entrance and sojourn of backpackers is Macau."

What?! On what possible basis do you make that assertion? Macau has among the most open most hassle-free immigration procedures on earth.

Yes, just book on www.booking.com and be sure you can cancel for free. Print your booking and sent it in with your visa application. When you have your Chinese visa, just cancel your booking.

Thanks.
I will check.

Michel

"The only entity that really tries to block the entrance and sojourn of backpackers is Macau."

What?! On what possible basis do you make that assertion? Macau has among the most open most hassle-free immigration procedures on earth.

Easy answer:

• The first I have written a word "tries" and they really try hard and are pretty successful. I have never said or written that they forbid.

• The government of Macau is officially trying to suppress the opening of hostels (just calculate how many hostel beds are offered compared to Macanese population or to usual hotels) and that number compare to Hong Kong or other China mainland tourist centers. Even more, most of the so called hostels in Macau are actually just a bit cheaper hotels. This is the fact.

• One great example is the hesitation and aggravation of the functioning of YHA in the territory of Macau.

There are many more good examples and I realize that you have probably misunderstand me because I wasn't writing about immigration policy, but the overall policy that regulates accommodation in the first place. So, all these circumstances have really blocked the entrance to many backpackers who would visit Macau otherwise. It is enough to see this fact by your own eyes...

Well, when you say "block the entrance" there in your original post, beats me if you're not referring to immigration policy. If you simply want to say there's not much cheap lodging in Macau, then say it. Nothing new about that, though: I can tell you it's been that way for decades.

I could only find one hostel when I was in Macau, and I stayed there. They were putting spare beds up all over the place to accommodate people, as supply was evidently outstripping demand.

@mvbergen The exact details of what you need to apply for a Chinese visa vary from consulate to consulate, and even from day to day. There's no standardization. These days, you usually need flight tickets in and out of China. You also generally need an itinerary of some sorts. This might be a list of places you plan on staying, but no actual bookings. You might need a booking for your first night in the country, but then nothing after that. Or you might need bookings for your whole stay. You won't know exactly what you need until you try to apply, and see what they say.

If you plan on staying in hostels in China, you will want to book many of them in advance. Giving a place a call the day before to make sure they have a spare bed for you is the norm in China. Hostels do sell out, and you do not want to drag yourself from hostel to hostel in China looking for a vacancy.

If you want to stay in hotels, you have a bit more flexibility, but until you figure out how China works, you might still want to book something in advance. At any rate, if you fly into Kunming, say, I'd recommend you at least have a place to stay there for the first couple of nights.

I say this being someone who hates booking in advance. It's something I normally only do in East Asia.

And Ben careful if you make too many bookings with booking.com then start cancelling them all. Could see you blocked for trolling. Far better to make a few in bigger places for more nights.

Oh, and buy a guide book.

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