China Now Requires A Letter Of Invitation For Tourist From Thailand

[JanKlaasen]

@Arguseye, you're right, Chinese tourism seems to function quite well without lots of westerners, which can be either a good or bad thing, depending on how you look at it. The good part is that there are fewer scams directed specifically towards foreigners or westerners in general compared to SE Asian countries like Thailand. This is probably because 1) with fewer foreign tourists there are fewer potential targets 2) there's always the language barrier since relatively few Chinese can speak English and 3) the government in China wants tourists to receive a good impression of their country. The bad part if you will, if that in some parts of China, particularly less travelled rural areas or less well known cities, foreigners can expect to receive a fair bit of attention with cries of "helloo!!" particularly by small children being quite vocal and having their pictures taken etc.

With regards to the language barrier 2.): There are few foreigners who speak Chinese. I think this will change soon. Very much like English is the lengua franca in many Western countries now, and Spanish is in Latin America, Chinese (Mandarin) will become the most important international language in Asia. It is quite possible that Westerners will lose out if they don't attempt to learn it.

There is more interchange within Asia than between Asians and Westerners. Who cares about English?

They are saying that already for the past 20 years, even bigger optimists have been predicting that it would overtake English in the number 1 world language, still nothing has changed since.

Anyway, isn't Thai, with all their hubs, gonne be the premium Asian language

[DickS]

I just received a Chinese Visa yesterday for 17 days. My Thai wife was also given a visa. I am a U.S. citizen. There was a 2 hour que arrive at the embassy in Bangkok early. In addition to the above mentioned documents we were required to submit proof of marriage. I suspect this is since I will be bearing the cost of the trip although our last names are the same on our US and Thai passports. We were also required to submited photocopy of all travelers check and bank books showing $100 per day per person. We also submited written itinerary and proof of medical insurance (airasia insurance). I believe China is clamping down with the passinng of the political torch this fall and recent party scandals. I have a retirement visa which was no problem. I had to provide a photo copy of my valid rentry visa to Thailand and previous Chinese visas. Be preparted to provide documentation of all previous visas to China and other countried for a 1 year period. We were also asked in both Thai and English if we were going to visit Tibet. I suspect our visa may have been denied if we were. Good luck ... I hope this is helpful to others who wish to visit China. This is the most restrictive process I yet experienced in going to China the last several years. . I also learned that you are often granted longer visas when applying from your home country depending of course on the country.

[easybullet3]

I just came back from China. No need visa nor invitation.

can you be more specific ??

What is your nationality? what passport are you holding? Where did you fly from? and was this to MAINLAND china? or an island?

[jacnl2000]

The Chinese Ambassador to London said last night

"We looked carefully at all the visa requirements of countries in our region and noted that those with very lax immigration requirements suffered greatly from what I think you English call 'riff-raff". We were particularly worried that China might become another Thailand - have you seen the quality of the people that are settling there, drunks, druggies, vagabonds and thieves the lot of them?"

Frontrunner for earworm of the year.

[asanee]

1\.in this BKK low-budget tourist ghetto most tr-agnets that handle all types of visa-apllications (often to the horror of the old-style TV user as he smells scams all the way-never much of a prob to me though) now skip China. A few still do-at higher prices-and arrange all the paperwork needed.

2.also: Really, it may be hard to believe, but China DOES discriminate between various nationalitiers, also led by political turmoil of the time-Franbce was often hit by that under Sarko. Whicvh makes it no sense at all to ask about visa without stating ones nationality.

3.have visited mainland China 5 times-the last 3 on my own in various parts. To me it looks like it makes a BIG differecne if you are Chinese or of Chinese descent yourself or plain white-''caucasian''. Rip-offs ar ejust as common if not more as in TH-and also in hardly visited towns. The Thai are also ''instructed'' to have to give a good impression of their country and apparently suceed in that also enough. But as in all cases there are die-hard believers who will not take any negative (for me its just impossible that any place has only positive aspects)-just as the many who favour SRT-Thai trains or the like.

4.for those unwilling to give all that info now needed-the easy way-as it always was-is to fly into HKG and let a local agent arrange it all-in half a day.

5.but its indeed a bit silly that when long time it got ever easier to gain entry into mainland China, they are now on the reverse. Must be that old Asian -middle aged men feeling of ''proudness'' and loosing face-perhaps the daughter of that burocrat in charge was refused a Schengen visa? In general-and other as above was suggested, it is NOT true that it ever gets harder to get visa-compared with the days of communism alife, many countries have scrapped them or reduced it to some payonentry scheme.

[electau]

An Australian passport holder does not appear to have a problem.

http://au.china-embassy.org/eng/

Click on link consular and visas. $60 for a 3 month visa.

[bangkokrick]

I am British and i am staying in Thailand on a non immigrant O visa. I applied for a Chinese tourist visa at the consulate in Bangkok about 2 weeks ago. I wanted a double entry visa which in the past has been very easy to obtain.

This time they wanted.

1 complete application for with photo.

2 Copies of my O visa and my arrival card.

3 My yellow house book or another proof of address.

4 My marriage certificate.

5 A copy of my wifes ID card.

6 Flight and hotel bookings for both entries.

7 My bank statement.

8 Proof of health insurance.

I was issued with 2 X 15 day entries. Previously they have issued 30 day entries without problem.

I hope this helps.

[electau]

An Australian passport holder does not appear to have a problem.

http://au.china-embassy.org/eng/

Click on link consular and visas. $60 for a 3 month visa.

They seem to be more interested in group tours than visits on an individual basis for tourist purposes, the itinerary and hotel bookings advice in advance and paid for in advance indicates that all bookings must be done through a travel agent. And a letter of invitation if you are Chinese.

Easiest to obtain a visa from your home country it would appear.

[Ricardo]

I often wondered what I might be missing, in not having seen China yet, luckily there will always be plenty of other places to go.

[driedmango]

Riff Raff - Poets, Dreamers, Hippies, Musicians, Artists, Interesting old people... all threats to their system. Also happen to be the creative class of people that invent most of the things that people want from Culture to Computers, and thats why China can only copy things and I don't know of a single band, brand or anything from China despite them being the worlds factory.

I am sure there is millions of cool people in China.. but they are kept down or move away.

What the world should fear is one day China completely opens up and lets their millions and millions of creative people have full rights, that day my friends will see China dominate the world in everything from Culture to Fashion to Poetry to Art to everything, in the meantime it is like a gifted Child being forced to work in the family farm.

Edited October 22, 2012 by driedmango

[trimesh]

If you want anything more than a single-entry visa then dealing with the Chinese embassy in BKK is more trouble than it's worth. I just went to HK and got a 6 month multiple entry via an agent - all they wanted was my passport and a photo and they dealt with everything else. It cost HK $2100, so not exactly cheap, but worth it for the lack of hassle.

[impulse]

If you want anything more than a single-entry visa then dealing with the Chinese embassy in BKK is more trouble than it's worth. I just went to HK and got a 6 month multiple entry via an agent - all they wanted was my passport and a photo and they dealt with everything else. It cost HK $2100, so not exactly cheap, but worth it for the lack of hassle.

Wish I had seen your exact advice a few days ago. Just hired an agency to get a BKK issued visa and got 22 days, single entry. Usual no problems getting 1 year multi with 60 days per landing.

Slightly disturbing is that the visa agency asked for original bank book and enough information they could probably drain my bank account when I'm gone if they can get a fake passport- (or even a copy of the front page, I discovered last week when I went in to do some banking while my passport was at the Embassy) I doubt it will happen and it's only my day-to-day spending money account, but...

Note to self: change bank account when you get back to Thailand. Drain it down to nothing tonight.

[jangmai]

I think I may be able to provide the Chinese with an appropriate letter of invitation AND roundtrip ticket/hotel reservation when the time comes. Might as well be as prepared as possible.

[jangmai]

Oops sorry for that last post, it should have gone somewhere else.

I am Canadian, living in Thailand on a 1 year non-immigrant (ED - educational) visa, doing a Master's degree here. My visa has many months left on it, I am completely paid up and in good academic standing, etc. In short I have no visa or passport problems of any kind as far as Thailand or Canada are concerned.

I want to go to China and work for a while, but I'm actually an English teacher with a B.Ed degree, so I assume that at least a few reputable employers in China would consider me "qualified."

Here's my question then: I want to go as a tourist so I can do several interviews and then choose from among the best offers, WHILE IN-COUNTRY. I hope to sign on with an employer who is in a position to then get me a proper work visa.

Any advice based on experience sufficiently recent to account for today's situation? And another question: For a tourist visa to China, should I just go to HK as a tourist and get the Chinese tourist visa there?

[Quickmill]

My recent experience to try to get a Chinese visa.

I was seeking to get a visa for a visit to a trade fair in Shanghai.

Due to the trip reason, ( business) the Chinese Embassy required to me the below document:

A copy of my company registration translated in English by a certified authorized translator

A copy of my WP

A copy of some passport page + departure card

A 6 months personal bank account statement

An hotel reservation valid for the period of stay

A round trip flight ticket

A copy of the trade fair online registration or e-badge

Maybe more document by embassy discretion

They told me that since all documents collected and accepted I should to wait 5 days before to collect my passport with visa,

I had to cancel my trip due to my late moving to provide in time the translated docs.

At least next time I know how to do.......2 weeks before.

[Tomtomtom69]

@Arguseye, you're right, Chinese tourism seems to function quite well without lots of westerners, which can be either a good or bad thing, depending on how you look at it. The good part is that there are fewer scams directed specifically towards foreigners or westerners in general compared to SE Asian countries like Thailand. This is probably because 1) with fewer foreign tourists there are fewer potential targets 2) there's always the language barrier since relatively few Chinese can speak English and 3) the government in China wants tourists to receive a good impression of their country. The bad part if you will, if that in some parts of China, particularly less travelled rural areas or less well known cities, foreigners can expect to receive a fair bit of attention with cries of "helloo!!" particularly by small children being quite vocal and having their pictures taken etc.

With regards to the language barrier "2.): There are few foreigners who speak Chinese." I think this will change soon. Very much like English is the lengua franca in many Western countries now, and Spanish is in Latin America, Chinese (Mandarin) will become the most important international language in Asia. It is quite possible that Westerners will lose out if they don't attempt to learn it.

There is more interchange within Asia than between Asians and Westerners. Who cares about English?

Actually, what I said was not many Chinese can speak English, which is true but I didn't say not many westerners can speak Chinese. In fact, of all the Asian countries I've visited, more westerners (or foreigners in general) can speak Chinese than any foreigners in all other Asian countries can speak the local language. This is partly out of necessity and partly due to the huge emerging importance of Chinese, as you correctly mentioned. It's not about westerners losing out since westerners, particularly multilingual Europeans often learn to communicate in Chinese more effectively than an Asian foreigner from Thailand or Vietnam, who always struggle with their accents - they can never seem to speak a foreign language without keeping all the nuisances of their own language. But at the end of the day any foreigner, irrespective of origin should learn Chinese to effectively get by in China, with the possible exception of some expats in Beijing and Shanghai who rarely venture outside their expat circles.

[Tomtomtom69]

Oops sorry for that last post, it should have gone somewhere else.

I am Canadian, living in Thailand on a 1 year non-immigrant (ED - educational) visa, doing a Master's degree here. My visa has many months left on it, I am completely paid up and in good academic standing, etc. In short I have no visa or passport problems of any kind as far as Thailand or Canada are concerned.

I want to go to China and work for a while, but I'm actually an English teacher with a B.Ed degree, so I assume that at least a few reputable employers in China would consider me "qualified."

Sure, no problems there.

Here's my question then: I want to go as a tourist so I can do several interviews and then choose from among the best offers, WHILE IN-COUNTRY. I hope to sign on with an employer who is in a position to then get me a proper work visa.

Yes - despite everything mentioned here this should be possible, but you may have to be prepared to exit the country to get your visa "converted" that is, by getting a "Z" working visa from an overseas Chinese diplomatic post. Some employers should be able to convert a tourist visa to a working visa within China, but this depends a bit on the connections they have and the city you're in.

Any advice based on experience sufficiently recent to account for today's situation? And another question: For a tourist visa to China, should I just go to HK as a tourist and get the Chinese tourist visa there?

Yes, you could do that as I believe it's possible to obtain a Chinese visa there without being asked for additional documents, especially if you use an agent. It's also possible to just get a tourist visa in Bangkok or Chiang Mai. If you have a sponsor in China (could be anyone living there, Chinese or a foreigner), have them write a letter stating how you will travel to China, how long you intend to stay (or just when you will arrive), where you will stay etc. and then you won't need hotel or flight bookings.

Edited November 9, 2012 by Tomtomtom69

[jangmai]

Yes - despite everything mentioned here this should be possible, but you may have to be prepared to exit the country to get your visa "converted" that is, by getting a "Z" working visa from an overseas Chinese diplomatic post. ...

Yes I'm perfectly prepared to have to make a visa run, it's worth it. It's much better to be in the city where one wants to work, get to know the scene a bit, and choose from a number of possible jobs, than it is to commit oneself blindly to something from outside the country.

By the way, does anyone have an account on Dave's ESL forums?

[impulse]

Could be easing up after the leadership transition.

We'll see...

Visas waived for Beijing transit travelers

http://travel.cnn.co...74406?hpt=hp_t3

Edited December 7, 2012 by impulse