The 50-country visa-free list, decoded — and how to keep it
China's 30-day visa-free entry now covers 50 countries through the end of 2026, with e-visa pilots on the way. What it unlocks, where the fine print bites, and how our guides keep you inside it.
If you hold a passport from most of Europe, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Argentina or the Gulf, the short version is: you can now walk into China for up to 30 days with no visa at all.
The unilateral visa-free entry policy — extended after the January high-level visits from Ottawa and London — now covers 50 countries and runs through 31 December 2026. Entries under it hit 8.99 million in Q3 2026 alone, up 24.1% year-on-year. This is not a pilot quietly waiting to expire; it’s the front door now.
What it unlocks
- 30 days, counted from the day after arrival, for tourism, business, family visits or transit
- No itinerary filing — you book hotels, trains and guides yourself, like any normal trip
- Stackable with the 240-hour (10-day) visa-free transit if your passport isn’t on the 50 list but you’re passing through to a third country
Where the fine print bites
- First-night registration. Every foreigner must register with local police — hotels do it automatically; private stays and Airbnbs often don’t. Miss it and you’ve created paperwork that follows your passport for the rest of the trip.
- The entry card. Airlines hand them out; online completion is being piloted but is not everywhere yet.
- “Third country” for transit routes. The 240-hour transit requires an onward ticket to a place that isn’t your origin. Hong Kong and Macau count.
- Overstays are still overstays. 30 days means 30 days; neither policy has a grace buffer.
Not sure whether your passport is on the list, or whether your route (Guilin → Chengdu → Shanghai) stays within the permitted areas? That’s a 10-minute question for us. Answer: almost always yes.
What we’d change about your plan
With 30 days gratis, slow travel finally makes sense in China: sleep in, meet the guide at 10, and spend the saved visa-stress energy on the Li River instead of a consulate queue.
