China visa-free in 2026: 30 days vs 240-hour transit

By Dayfare Editorial · Updated October 30, 2026 · 6 min read

Short answer: if you hold an ordinary passport from one of 50 countries, including most of Europe, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the UK and Canada, you can visit China for up to 30 days without a visa. For 48 of those countries the policy currently ends on December 31, 2026, and no extension has been announced yet. US citizens are not on that list: they can use the 240-hour (10-day) visa-free transit, which needs an onward ticket to a third country.

Last verified: October 14, 2026, against Chinese government and embassy pages listed at the end of the post. This is a planning guide, not legal advice. Rules change, so check the official page for your nationality before you book.

Which policy applies to you

Follow these steps in order:

1. Are you traveling for work, study or journalism? Then you need a visa. Neither policy covers it.
2. Is your country on the 30-day list (below)? Then you can stay up to 30 days for tourism, business, family visits, exchange or transit, arriving from anywhere. Stop here.
3. Is your country on the 240-hour transit list (below)? Then you can stay up to 10 days, if you enter at one of the 65 designated ports, stay inside the 24 permitted provincial-level regions, and hold a confirmed onward ticket to a third country or region.
4. None of the above, or you want a longer trip? Apply for a visa at the Chinese embassy or consulate for your area.

Several countries appear on both lists. If yours does, the 30-day policy is simpler: no onward ticket rule and no regional limit.

30-day visa-free entry vs 240-hour transit

Countries on the 30-day list

The Chinese consulate FAQ (updated June 2026) groups the list by end date:

• Until December 31, 2026 (48 countries): France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Australia, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Slovenia, Slovakia, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, South Korea, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Sweden, Canada and the United Kingdom.
• Until December 31, 2027: Russia.
• No end date: Brunei.

The United States is not on the list. The UK and Canada were added on February 17, 2026, so older guides that say British and Canadian travelers need the transit route are out of date.

Countries on the 240-hour transit list

57 countries, grouped by region on the Shanghai government's policy page:

• Europe (40): Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Monaco, Russia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Belarus and Norway.
• Americas (6): the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Chile.
• Oceania (2): Australia and New Zealand.
• Asia (9): South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Brunei, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Qatar, Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam. Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam were added on August 20, 2026.

The deadline: does it end on December 31, 2026?

For now, yes. The 30-day policy was extended in November 2025 to run until 24:00 on December 31, 2026, Beijing time, and the UK and Canada joined it under the same end date. As of October 14, 2026, China has not announced an extension into 2027 for that list. The only confirmed extension is for Russia, to the end of 2027.

The policy has been renewed before, each time with a few weeks' notice. If your trip starts in 2027, or straddles New Year, don't count on visa-free entry until an announcement appears on your Chinese embassy's website. We will update this post when one does.

How the allowed days cap your budget

Your visa route decides your maximum trip length, and trip length is the biggest lever on total cost. Hotels, food and local transport are paid every day, so the number of days multiplies everything else.

Take a mid-range daily budget of ¥700 per person for lodging, food, local transport and sightseeing, excluding flights. That figure is an example for this calculation, not a researched price.

Two practical consequences:

• Transit travelers have a hard ceiling. Ten days is the maximum, so your total budget is set by the daily rate. The onward flight to a third country is an extra cost to plan for, but it can also be the start of a second trip, for example Seoul, Tokyo or Hong Kong.
• 30 days is a limit, not a target. Most people visit for one to two weeks. Pick your days first, then multiply, rather than stretching the trip because you can.

How to set this up in Dayfare

1. Create the trip with your entry and exit dates. Keep it within 10 days for the transit route, or 30 days for visa-free entry, so the trip length matches what your passport allows.
2. Set a daily budget in your home currency, for example the equivalent of ¥700. Dayfare shows what you can still spend today.
3. Log hotels once under Accommodation with check-in and check-out dates. Dayfare spreads the cost across those nights.
4. Keep flights out of your daily budget. Flights count toward the trip total but not toward today, including the onward flight the transit route requires.
5. Log everything else in yuan as you go. Dayfare converts each expense to your home currency when you log it.

Sources

• FAQ on visa-free entry into China, updated June 2026, Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco
• Notice on China's visa waiver policy for the UK and Canada, Chinese Embassy in the UK
• China extends visa-free entry for 45 countries until December 31, 2026, Chinese Embassy in Croatia
• China to extend visa-free policy for Russian citizens, gov.cn
• Announcement adding Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam to the 240-hour transit list, National Immigration Administration
• 240-hour visa-free transit policy, Shanghai Municipal Government

Prices and rules last verified: October 14, 2026. Published October 30, 2026.