New China Tourist Visa Requirements

[jackspratt]

It seems the current restrictive conditions for tourists visas may have been dropped, or at least eased.

On 22 July the State Council appear to have promulgated new regulations covering a number of visa types, including "tourist".

L visa: for persons coming to China for tourism. The requirement of the draft State Council regulations that round-airlines tickets and hotel reservations be provided in every case has been dropped. (See Draft State Council regs at art. 9(6)). Nevertheless, visa agencies may require such evidence on a case-by-case basis.

http://lawandborder.com/?p=2707

Good news - hopefully.

[paquito]

Thanks for the post. The change will come a little too late for me.

I need to get my Chinese tourist visa in BKK sometime mid-August.

I'll first try with only a one-way ticket and no hotel booking.

Plan is to fly to Chongqing, travel overland to Yunnan, then to Hanoi.

I'll let you know how it goes with the visa.

Anyone with recent experience: please let me know how it went for you.

[taxout]

It's not quite that the ticket and hotel reservation requirement has been eliminated. Rather, the explicit mention of tickets and hotel reservations has been eliminated, and replaced with a catch-all phrase equivalent to "etc." So we'll have to wait and see whether this is a meaningful change or not.

The regulations take effect September 1.

Edited July 28, 2013 by taxout