China - never a dull moment!

[JohnK]

Thinking of going to Chengdu for 1 night.

I am assuming the 72 hour visa free transit allows me to leave airport?

I am thinking of staying at a Holiday Inn express which is ~15-16kms from airport. Any ideas on time it would take to/from hotel in the evening and morning? Any ideas on cost for taxi?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thinking of going to Chengdu for 1 night.

I am assuming the 72 hour visa free transit allows me to leave airport?

I am thinking of staying at a Holiday Inn express which is ~15-16kms from airport. Any ideas on time it would take to/from hotel in the evening and morning? Any ideas on cost for taxi?

72 hour transit without visa is only applicable if you are arriving and departing Chengdu from different countries (ie you cannot do a round-trip to Chengdu from the same country).

Provided you comply with that rule, you are entitled to either a 24 or 72 hour transit without visa depending on:

• (a) your length of stay (if you are there less than 24 hours you'll only be given the lesser amount) and,
• (b) how many transit stops or technical stops you may have in China. If non-stop to/from CTU you can have 72 hours, measured from 00:01 the day after you arrive. But beware: some flights to Chinese cities will display as non-stop, but in fact have a technical stop at another city in China. If that's the case you will enter China at that technical stop, and that limits you to a 24 hours TWOV. This is measured from the time you first touch down in China at the technical stop, until the last schedule departure from china (including any technical stops).

With TWOV you are effectively 'landed' in China and are free to leave the airport, but must stay within the Chengdu city limits.

Can't help with travel time in Chengdu.

 

[JohnK]

72 hour transit without visa is only applicable if you are arriving and departing Chengdu from different countries (ie you cannot do a round-trip to Chengdu from the same country).

HKG-CTU-HKG.

With TWOV you are effectively 'landed' in China and are free to leave the airport, but must stay within the Chengdu city limits.

Just to hotel and back.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

HKG-CTU-HKG.

You are not eligible for transit without a visa on that itinerary.

You need a Chinese visa, or to depart CTU for a third country (eg BKK)

 

[JohnK]

You are not eligible for transit without a visa on that itinerary.

You need a Chinese visa, or to depart CTU for a third country (eg BKK)

The itinerary would be BKK-HKG-CTU-HKG-BKK where HKG is transit point. Depart Saturday and return Sunday.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The itinerary would be BKK-HKG-CTU-HKG-BKK where HKG is transit point. Depart Saturday and return Sunday.

To qualify for TWOV in China you must be in transit in China, en route to a third country. You cannot arrive and depart from the same country.

For your purposes, you are arriving from Hong Kong, and departing to Hong Kong. Other points on the ticket (origin or final destination beyond hong kong) aren't relevant.

With your current itinerary you would likely be refused boarding in BKK, 99.999% likely refused boarding in HKG (mistakes sometimes happen!), and if somehow you made it to China you would either be refused entry and returned to HKG, or if you're lucky, you may be allowed to buy a walk-up fare to a third country before being released by immigration.

 

[JohnK]

To qualify for TWOV in China you must be in transit in China, en route to a third country. You cannot arrive and depart from the same country.

For your purposes, you are arriving from Hong Kong, and departing to Hong Kong. Other points on the ticket (origin or final destination beyond hong kong) aren't relevant.

With your current itinerary you would likely be refused boarding in BKK, 99.999% likely refused boarding in HKG (mistakes sometimes happen!), and if somehow you made it to China you would either be refused entry and returned to HKG, or if you're lucky, you may be allowed to buy a walk-up fare to a third country before being released by immigration.

Thanks. So in essence either get a visa or scrap this plan.

 

[mushez]

Thanks. So in essence either get a visa or scrap this plan.

Yes ......

Applying and getting your Visa in Bangkok from the Chinese Embassy for China is a Lot Cheaper, Easier, and Faster than to do so in AU from experience.

Was something like apply before 10am, pick up after 2pm and half the price that doing a standard 3 day job here in AU.

You can get the MRT in BKK to be within a 3 minute walk from the Embassy if that helps.

(Disclaimer - this was the case 6 years ago when I did this in regards to Chinese visa in Bangkok.)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yes ......

Applying and getting your Visa in Bangkok from the Chinese Embassy for China is a Lot Cheaper, Easier, and Faster than to do so in AU from experience.

Was something like apply before 10am, pick up after 2pm and half the price that doing a standard 3 day job here in AU.

You can get the MRT in BKK to be within a 3 minute walk from the Embassy if that helps.

(Disclaimer - this was the case 6 years ago when I did this in regards to Chinese visa in Bangkok.)

You'd need to check the eligibility for an Australian to apply for chinese visa in Bangkok. Many embassies now restrict the issuing of visas to nationals or permanent residents (proof required) of the country where you make the application. Hong kong is an exception, but it's expensive now.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks. So in essence either get a visa or scrap this plan.

Or - buy a ticket that complies with the TWOV requirements.

For example, use someone like expedia to price out BKK-HKG-CTU-BKK (making sure the CTU-BKK is non-stop!). Or buy a one-way CX BKK-CTU (via HKG) and use ctrip to price out a one-way CTU-BKK (some asia flights can be very cheap).

For TWOV purposes your itinerary would then be HKG-CTU-BKK, which is just fine.

(Just make sure you comply with the rules above - non-stop to/from CTU from a third country gets you 72 hours, but if you have any transits or technical stops in China you must be in and out from China in 24 hours or less).

 

[JohnK]

Yes ......

Applying and getting your Visa in Bangkok from the Chinese Embassy for China is a Lot Cheaper, Easier, and Faster than to do so in AU from experience.

Was something like apply before 10am, pick up after 2pm and half the price that doing a standard 3 day job here in AU.

You can get the MRT in BKK to be within a 3 minute walk from the Embassy if that helps.

(Disclaimer - this was the case 6 years ago when I did this in regards to Chinese visa in Bangkok.)

Unfortunately do not have any time at all next trip to spend in Bangkok. Just Chiang Mai and Pattaya with hotels booked already.

Need to decide in next few days but if I have to send off for visa here in Brisbane/Sydney then it defeats the purpose of my spur of the moment trip planning.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Unfortunately do not have any time at all next trip to spend in Bangkok. Just Chiang Mai and Pattaya with hotels booked already.

Need to decide in next few days but if I have to send off for visa here in Brisbane/Sydney then it defeats the purpose of my spur of the moment trip planning.

If you can find a cheap fare to CTU, Spring Airlines flies non-stop from there back to BKK on Mon/Wed/Sat, depending on the days fares are as low as USD157 one way after you include taxes (which don't show on the initial price page).

Or you can do the reverse (fly to CTU on Spring) - for fares starting at THB4100 including all taxes, and then fly back from there to BKK via HKG.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Received following info from WeChat Flyer Talk group:

High-speed rail linking Beijing and Hongkong: Speed 350 kph



The route of the Beijing-Kowloon high-speed railway has basically been decided with the impact assessment of Shangqiu-Hangzhou high-speed railway and Beijing-Bazhou high-speed railway entering the stage of publicity.
The stations on the line are Beijing, Beijing New Airport, Bazhou, Hengshui, Liaocheng, Shangqiu, Hefei, Hangzhou, Heze, Fuyang, Nanchang, Ji'an, Ganzhou, Heyuan, Huizhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. According to the impact assessment, the speed of the Beijing-Kowloon high-speed railway will reach 350 kilometers per hour.
The distance between Beijing and Kowloon is more than 2400 kilometers. After opening to traffic, the high-speed railway connecting Beijing and Hong Kong will greatly save the travel time and strongly promote the resource exploitation and economic development of cities along the railway.

Mooted journey time ~8hrs - trying to find out planned completion date now.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Mooted journey time ~8hrs - trying to find out planned completion date now.

hmmm. Other than a 'once off', would you take the train between HKG and Beijing? I don't think the time savings are significant enough. To Shanghai maybe... with their delays.

I wonder what was wrong with maglev? Sooo much faster!

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Completion slated Q4 2018 apparently - most of the track completed only SHZ to HKG requires building - Maglev cost prohibitive - if this train does travel at 350kmh that is considerably faster than current high speed trains.

Yes MEL I might try it once just to say I did it - I still have not done SH-BJ or reverse non stop - still an amazing piece of infrastructure by any standards.

 

[defurax]

Completion slated Q4 3018 apparently

That's a long time to wait! :shock:

 

[Cruiser Elite]

That's a long time to wait! :shock:

It is kinda getting out there isn't it. Typo fixed - Q4 2018 would be much more accurate

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Is Google returning to China? - Appears so

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Is Google returning to China? - Appears so

woo-hoo!!

Makes life so much easier! (and other search engines just don't 'do' it for me)

 

[sinophile888]

Last week when we were in Shenzhen, my husband was excited about using Google translate but was having trouble getting it to work at all. Took him a while to twig.