Chinese 72 hour transit visa rule: exact start time of period

I have a 75 hour trip to Beijing (PEK) coming up in October. I shall enter at PEK on a flight from London, arriving at 0930 and continue onwards by air to Hong Kong three days later at 1230, and I shall be travelling on an ordinary British passport.

I understand that the 72 hour transit visa on arrival actually begins the midnight after my arrival (and not immediately after arrival). The relevant text from TIMATIC is

Visa required, except for Holders of British passports
endorsed  British Citizen  holding confirmed onward airline
tickets to a third country, if arriving in and departing from
the same city:
- at Beijing (PEK), Chengdu (CTU), Chongqing (CKG), Dalian
(DLC), Guangzhou (CAN), Hangzhou (HGH), Shanghai Hongqiao
(SHA), Shanghai Pudong (PVG), Tianjin (TSN), Wuhan (WUH),
Xi'an (XIY) or Xiamen (XMN) for a max. transit time of 72
hours, starting from 00:01 on the day following the day of
entry.
- at Guilin (KWL), Harbin (HRB), Kunming (KMG) or Shenyang
(SHE) for a max. transit time of 72 hours;

However, although several non-official sources substantiate this distinction, I cannot find any official confirmation of this. Does anyone have any experience in doing this kind of transit?

Best Answer

There is a dedicated 72 hour transit desk at Peking terminal 3C, to the left of the foreigners' other passport desks. I handed over my passport, landing card, and a print out of my e-ticket receipt for my onward flight. I left the "Visa number" and "Visa place of issue" blank on the landing card.

The man asked me "72 hours?", to which I thought it best to reply with, "Yes" rather than try to explain it was slightly longer; he gave the eticket receipt a cursory glance and asked me to copy the flight number and departure date onto my landing card. He was very interested in inspecting every stamp in my passport for some reason, but he didn't ask me about any of them. After a couple of minutes, he stamped me in with a departure date matching my onward flight.

The chap before me seemed to be in a bit of difficulty, he was asked to stand aside and was making some urgent phone calls while I was being processed. I suspect he didn't have any paperwork with him to show the inspector.

I wondered if I would have difficulty boarding at Heathrow because of the connection being across separate tickets, not to mention being more than 72 hours, so I arrived at the airport early expecting to have a difficult conversation, and went to a staffed check in desk to discuss it. The conversation went something like this:
Me: "Hello, I'm checked in for my flight to Peking and I have the electronic boarding pass, but do you want to do a visa check before I go airside?"
Check-in agent: "Yes sir, I can do that for you now. Do you have a visa?"
Me: "No, I'm actually doing a transit across onto a separate ticket."
Check-in agent: "Well that's fine then sir. Can I help you with anything else?"

So the process has been very smooth. The key seems to be, print something out to show the immigration inspector.

Edit: I did it again today, although this time I'm only staying for twenty hours. No problem checking in at Tokyo, although this time the agent did actually want to know about my onward flight. However when I arrived at Peking Terminal 3, the dedicated 72 hour line was closed. I suspected this would be a problem, so I asked at the normal Foreigners desk, as clearly as I could, "Hello, I would like to enter under the 72 hour visa free programme", and was told to use the Diplomats line instead. Again, the chap there was very interested in printed paperwork. It took a couple of minutes to be processed.

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How long validity is a transit visa?

Transit Visa Single/Double entry visas, valid for a maximum of 15 days, are issued to applicants who would be transiting through India.

Can you transit through China without a visa?

Under the 24-hour visa-free transit rule, no visa is required for international flight, ship, or train passengers who transit directly through mainland China and will stay for less than 24 hours. Passengers should hold tickets to a third country or region and have a confirmed seat.

Does China allow transit?

The 72-hour visa-free transit policy in China allows air passengers from 53 countries to transit and stay for up to 72 hours (3 days) in 18 China cities without a visa. In order to facilitate international visitors' short stay in China, the policy is promising to be carried out in more and more cities in the future.

How long can I stay in Shanghai without a visa?

Enter China via Shanghai cruise terminals to enjoy a 15-day visa-free stay. Shanghai has a 15-day visa-free policy for foreign tourist groups entering China via a cruise. You must arrive and depart on the same cruise and be received by a Chinese travel agent at the Shanghai cruise terminal (or Wusong Passenger Center).

China 72 hour Free Transit Visa 1

Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Charlotte May, Stas Knop, Stas Knop, Karolina Grabowska