The 240-hour visa-free transit

The policy that used to be 72 and 144 hours was relaxed in one go at the end of 2024, and the change is large enough that a lot of published advice is now wrong by a factor of three. Twenty-one ports were added at the same time, taking the total from thirty-nine to sixty.

The condition that decides everything

You have to be travelling from China onward to a third country or region. The exemption exists for people passing through, and the border reads the ticket. A New York to Beijing to New York trip is not transit no matter how brief it is; a New York to Beijing to Seoul trip is, even if you spend nine days in Beijing.

The older, shorter exemption

Twenty-four hours still exists and is separate: a passenger with a confirmed onward international ticket who does not leave the port of entry needs no visa and no paperwork. It is the version that applies to a plane change, and it has no country list at all.

 The number of eligible countries is not stable.  The Consulate General in New York published fifty-four in December 2024 and Los Angeles fifty-five in the same week; Indonesia was added later. Check the National Immigration Administration rather than a consular page that may not have been updated.

What ten days actually buys

The old 72-hour window was a stopover. Ten days is a holiday, and that is the point of the change: a traveller flying to Southeast Asia or Europe can now route through China and spend a week there without applying for anything.

The permitted areas are set by province rather than by city, and with twenty-four provinces in the scheme they are wide. The constraint that actually bites is the ticket: the onward flight has to leave for a third country, and the border checks it on arrival rather than taking it on trust.

All the proceduresFees and documents