China's 240-Hour Visa-Free Transit: Where You Can Actually Go (and Where You Can't)
The 240-hour transit scheme lets 55 nationalities skip the visa, but only inside 24 regions through 65 ports. Here is which famous sights are off limits, and what to do instead.
China's 240-Hour Visa-Free Transit: Where You Can Actually Go (and Where You Can't)
Last verified: 4 June 2026 · Sources: China Visa Application Service Center, Xinhua (17 Dec 2024), Chinese Embassy in the US (Jun 2025)
First, check which scheme you're on
Most articles about "visa-free China" mix up two different policies. Sort yourself before reading further.
You're on the 30-day visa-free entry list if you hold a passport from most EU countries, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Norway, Brazil and a few dozen others (temporary regime, currently until 31 December 2026). Good news: none of the restrictions below apply to you. You can fly into Chengdu and take the train to Dunhuang, Urumqi, or Qinghai Lake like anyone else. Tibet still needs a permit on any visa. Stop reading; go plan.
You're on 240-hour transit only if you're from the United States, Mexico, Indonesia, Czechia, Lithuania, Ukraine, or anywhere else not on the 30-day list. This page is for you, and the area rules below have teeth.
On neither list? You need a visa before you fly.
The short version
Citizens of 55 countries can enter mainland China without a visa for up to 240 hours (10 days) while transiting to a third country. The fine print: you must enter through one of 65 designated ports, and you must stay inside 24 designated regions. Several of China's most famous sights sit outside those regions. Leave the zone and you risk fines, detention trouble at exit, and a five-year ban from the scheme.
The rules that actually bite
- Your clock starts at 00:00 the day after you land, so you get ten days plus your arrival evening.
- You must be going A → China → B, and B can't be A. Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan count as separate destinations here, which makes round trips through Hong Kong workable.
- Enter and exit through any of the 65 approved ports: 47 airports, 14 seaports, two rail crossings (West Kowloon in Hong Kong, Mohan on the Laos line) and two land crossings (Hengqin and the HZMB Zhuhai port). Different ports in and out is fine.
- Bring a passport with three months left on it and a confirmed onward ticket. There's a dedicated 240-hour transit desk at immigration; queue there, not in the regular lane.
- Working on this scheme, or overstaying, gets you banned from it for five years.
Where you can go
Eighteen provinces are open in full: Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Hainan, Chongqing, Guizhou and Shaanxi.
Six more are only partly open, and this is where travelers get burned:
| Province | Open to you | Off limits |
|---|---|---|
| Shanxi | Taiyuan, Datong | Pingyao, Wutaishan, the Wang Family Courtyard |
| Heilongjiang | Harbin | Snow Town, Mohe |
| Jiangxi | Nanchang, Jingdezhen | Wuyuan, Lushan |
| Guangxi | Guilin, Nanning, Beihai + 9 more cities | (Guilin and Yangshuo are fine) |
| Sichuan | Chengdu, Leshan + 9 more cities | Jiuzhaigou, Huanglong, Yading, Danba |
| Yunnan | Kunming, Lijiang, Dali, Xishuangbanna + 5 more | Shangri-La, Tengchong |
Seven provinces are not in the scheme at all: Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang.
What that means in plain terms
On this scheme you cannot visit the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang. Not Jiayuguan, not the Zhangye rainbow mountains; Gansu is entirely out. Same for Kashgar, Kanas, Qinghai Lake, the Hulunbuir grasslands and Changbaishan.
Jiuzhaigou catches people every year. Yes, it's in Sichuan. No, you can't go: the allowed area is a list of eleven cities, and Aba prefecture isn't on it. Huanglong sits in the same prefecture, so a tour selling you "Chengdu + Jiuzhaigou + Huanglong" on a transit stay is selling you a violation.
Pingyao is out while Datong, two hours away, is in. Shangri-La is out while Lijiang and Dali are in. And if you wanted a desert: every major Chinese desert experience (Dunhuang, Shapotou, Xiangshawan) sits outside the zone. There is no workaround for that one.
It's not all bad news. Three of the four sacred Buddhist mountains (Emei, Putuo, Jiuhua) are inside the zone. So are Huangshan, Zhangjiajie, Guilin, Harbin and the Terracotta Army.
If your dream stop is blocked
You have three honest options.
Swap within the zone. The Yungang Grottoes at Datong and the Longmen Grottoes at Luoyang are both UNESCO cave-art sites inside the zone, and between them they cover much of what draws people to Mogao. Shanhaiguan, where the Great Wall meets the sea, stands in for Jiayuguan at the other end. Hongcun and Xidi give you the Huizhou village architecture that Wuyuan is famous for. Huangshan covers Lushan. Shenyang's Imperial Palace covers Changchun's.
Get the full L visa. Everything above opens up, except Tibet, which needs its own permit regardless. Apply through the official China Visa Application Service Center; allow a couple of weeks.
For Tibet specifically: a Tibet Travel Permit comes only through an authorized agency that files your itinerary, takes 8 to 15 days, and requires a guided tour. No agency, no permit, no Lhasa. That's true on every visa type.
Questions people actually ask
Can I visit Jiuzhaigou on the 240-hour transit? No. Aba prefecture is not in Sichuan's allowed area. This is the single most common mistake we see planned.
When does my 240 hours start? At midnight after your arrival day. Land at 9am Tuesday and your clock starts 00:00 Wednesday.
Can I enter at one port and leave from another? Yes. Fly into Shanghai, train around the zone, fly out of Chengdu.
Does Hong Kong count as a "third country"? For this policy, yes. US → Beijing → Hong Kong qualifies.
What if I just quietly take a train through a closed area? The rules are vague on pure pass-through, and we won't pretend otherwise. What's clear: being found staying outside the zone means fines, possible detention, and a five-year ban. Don't build a trip on ambiguity.
Policy history (because this changes)
- 17 Dec 2024 — extended from 72/144 hours to 240; 54 countries; ports up from 39 to 60; regions from 19 to 24; cross-region travel allowed for the first time.
- 12 Jun 2025 — Indonesia added, making 55 countries.
- Late 2025 — rail (West Kowloon, Mohan) and land (Hengqin, HZMB) ports added, making 65.
We re-verify this page every 30 days. If you're reading this after December 2026, check whether the 30-day visa-free list was renewed first; that changes who needs this scheme at all.