How To Get Your Chinese Tourist Visa
If you’re reading about the Chinese tourist visa and you’ve ended up here, you’re probably a cycle tourist or walker wondering how to get Chinese Tourist Visa from the UK. It’s true that travellers struggle with the Chinese visa process, but, it’s easy when you know how.
We managed to get a 3 month Chinese Tourist Visa with 2 year entry.
We didn’t have any trouble getting a Chinese tourist visa, but we heard stories where people got rejected or didn’t get exactly what they wanted. Our 3 month visa with a 2 year entry, surprised almost everyone we met on the road.
This blog explains how we did it, how we understand the process and how we managed to apply for a Chinese Visa in 2019.
Remember that visa rules change pretty often and you should do your own research before going ahead. The reason we got a good visa is because Stew is a super researcher and sourced the right information from the right places (eg. not just blogs.) I’ve supplied some resources to help you at the end of this blog and you can feel free to contact us if you have questions.
This article was written in 2019. Things will have changed.
Apply for Chinese Visa From the UK: The Process Explained
The process is a weird one. If you know that you’re cycling into China then the easiest thing to do is, well, lie. If you try and tell them you are cycling in you are going to have a hard time getting in. The truth us, you would probably be able to obtain a visa by telling the whole truth, but it will make your life hard.
We spoke to a cyclist who said she was cycling through and it opened a can of worms for her. She did get a China Tourist Visa, but it was a nightmare. She advised that we do what others do, which is the process I am going to explain to you now.
To visit China you have to have an itinerary and a travel ticket number (flight, train or boat). You have to show proof of booking when you apply for Chinese Visa. This is sorted at the Chinese Visa Application Services Centre (more on that below).
To get around this, what you need to do is create an itinerary of flights and hotels, then later cancel it.
I know it seems weird and if you’re reading from the UK, we’re not used to this type of process, so it feels wrong. Trust us, when you’ve cycled through China this kinda thing will start to make sense. You will see how the Chinese Tourist Visa it fits in with typical Chinese processes and rules. They are often so flawed you don’t know why they bother, but that is China for you. It really is a unique place.
How to Get Your Chinese Visa
Okay, so let’s get into it – how to get the Chinese Tourist Visa.
If you are getting your visa sorted in the UK then you will need to apply online. Then you go to Manchester, London, Edinburgh or Belfast and visit the Chinese Visa Application Services Centre (CVASC). We went to Manchester.
At the visa centre they will look at your application, ask a few questions and check supporting documents like flights and hotels. When we were there we did see one man rejected for his visa there and then, but we don’t know why.
We breezed it and so did everyone else there from what we could see. The visa application centre is basically the first ‘gate’ to the visa. If you follow our instructions you should have no problem.
I want to make it clear that once you’ve got the visa you do not have to fly in. You can just go by bicycle and you will not have any issues at all. The visa application process is really just rigmarole of box-checking exercises to obtain the visa, and then it’s easy from there.
Applying for the Chinese Visa
When we applied for our Chinese Tourist Visa there was either a 1 month or a 3 month visa as standard. So, when you book an itinerary make sure it is longer than 1 month. We booked more than 31 days of travel, so we would not get a 1 month visa. They will give you the shortest visa possible.
Booking an itinerary of hotels for the Chinese Tourist Visa
When you book hotels, book with booking.com, as you will be able to cancel without paying any fees. You just need to create a fake itinerary to please the Chinese Visa Application Centre– do whatever you like. We booked a hotel in 5 cities for the duration of 1 week. Our hotel bookings started in Qingdoa (the destination we ‘flew’ into) and continued on to Beijng, Xi’an, Chengdu and finally Kunming (all tourist cities). You will need to print these confirmations and take them to the visa centre with you. Remember you can cancel them for free using booking.com and you won’t have to send any money. Use booking.com!!
Booking Flights to Get the Chinese Visa
The flights are a different ball game – book flights as cheap as you can with an airline that offers refunds. If you’re cycling in, you just need the flights to obtain the Chinese Tourist Visa.
Now, we booked with Ceair as I thought it was a free refund, but I must’ve read the small print wrong as we ended up getting a partial refund or paying an admin fee, so I lost a bit of money. It was about £50 – £100 I think. It wasn’t too bad, and honestly, I celebrated the small loss and it felt worth it just to have the visa, but, yeah, it still stung a bit!
You’ll have to do your own research on flights as policies change. Some people fake their booking confirmations entirely by editing documents. We could not face that personally. It would send me over the edge if I walked into to the Visa Application Centre with fake documents. I just couldn’t do it.
In order to get the cheapest flights we could we book inbound flights from Seoul (South Korean) to Qingdoa and outbound flights from Kunming to Hanoi (Vietnam).
The visa application guards do not care to see your previous itinerary. We did not enter at Qingdao (obviously), we crossed the border by bike at Khorgas, China, but it didn’t matter.
All you need to do is check the boxes so you can get the Chinese Visa.
The guards at Khorgas (or wherever your crossing) will not know what you said when you obtained the visa. Anyway, plans get messed up sometimes – if we were questioned we were just going to say we decided not to fly because we chose to cycle instead – what can they do…
The Chinese Tourist Visa Application Centre
At the visa centre they will check your documents, ask you standard questions like your job, name, DOB – all that boring stuff, and they take your fingerprints too.
This is the first ‘gate’ to getting the Chinese Tourist Visa. Make sure your itineraries tie up and everything makes sense, so that you don’t have any problems here.
If the administrator is happy with your application they will then take your passport and send it off to actually get the visa added to your passport.
How long does it take to get the Chinese tourist visa?
It took a few weeks and our passports came back with a visa for 3 months to travel and a 2 year single entry.
As we understand it, that 2 year entry window is standard.
It is advised that you do not apply for your visa one month prior to your intended date of entry into China, but not earlier than three months. So – you need to create a false itinerary as you know, but also with false dates. Does that make sense?
We applied for our visa in January 2019 and we told them that our flights departed on 3rd April 2019, so we rinsed that 3 month rule if that makes sense. We actually cycled in, in October/November 2019.
Useful resources to understand more about the Chinese Tourist Visa
visaforchina.org this is going to be your bible pretty much! Read up on the latest policies and procedures here.
www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china more Chinese travel advice
Post written by: Zoe Ashbridge
Comments
Ask a question or join the discussion below.
Go back to China Travel Guides to see more content like this or checkout similar content below.
Back to China Travel Guides
Hello,
I am looking into going to China next year maybe September, i am trying to spend 3 weeks at least there and i live in London and i have few questions.
– I have dual citizenship, can i apply with my Bulgarian passport in the Chinese Embassy in London ? because with BG passport is 60 euro the visa and with Uk one is i think £150.
– I want to land in Beijing and then travel by train to Xi’an , and again by train to Guilin, Zhangjiaje and lastly Shenzhen where i will fly back. I will need proof of train tickets ?
– If i am going from 1st of September i should apply and do the one to one interview a month before like beginning of August ?
– Do they take your passport and hold them ? If yes, when do they sent them back ?
Thank you in advance
Hi Nelly,
I can try and answer these questions for you but I’m not super confident…
1) on the dual citizenship, I really don’t know, sorry.
2) I think you will need booked tickets for your trains and flights. We did, but things could’ve changed.
3) Do the admin of it all as soon as you can, you have to tell them when you’re travelling anyway.
4) They did take our passports, but I can’t remember how long… I don’t think it was too long though, a couple days, maybe a week.
Hey there great article and helpful info. I’m from the UK but outside and currently in Australia.
Do you know if it’s at all possible to get a Chinese visa if I’m outside the UK?
Hey! Thanks for your comment, I’m glad you enjoyed the article.
To answer your question, because we got our visa in the UK, I’m not particularly confident about the process to obtain the visa outside the UK. We did consider sorting ours on the road back in 2019 but decided it was easier then to just get it before we left England.
All that said, we did meet travellers who sorted their visas while they were in the midst of an adventure. They were all travelling through Central Asia, though.
Hi, I stumbled across your article whilst looking for information on Chinese Visa. Would you mind clarifying what it means when you say “came back with a visa for 3 months to travel and a 2 year single entry.” Does it mean you had a 2 year visa and could travel 1x 3 months within that 2 year period?
Hello, yes of course!
You’ve got it exactly right, we had a 2 year entry and could travel for three months within that time. Hope that helps!
Now that China’s opening up again, I wonder if this is still applicable. Would be interesting to find out.
Hey Stephen, good question! We can only share the info we had back in 2019. I did add the caveat that this was the process for back then, but I hear you, things have probably changed since. 🙂