Tips On Making The Most Of Your Layover/Stopover | Exploring Lama Temple In Beijng

In my last post, I shared tips on making the most of China's 72-hour visa-free transit, allowing you to explore a little bit of China without having to pay for the expensive visa. This time, I am sharing tips on making the most of your layover in China. These tips can also be used for any other country you may have a layover in. Layovers or stopovers, can be an inexpensive way  to travel to more destinations for less or getting an intro to a city without investing too much time or many. A layover/stopover allows you to stay in a connection city for greater than 24 hours but less than the duration of your planned trip. Planning in advance means that you can add an addition country or city with ease. Things like making sure you have an idea of how long the journey is from the airport to town, having a little bit of local currency will make sure you can get exploring quickly without using up your layover time queuing up for currency exchange booths.

Below are some tips on making the most of your layover in China and any other country you may have a layover in.

Tips to Make The Most of Your Layover In Beijing

1. Pick One of 2 Things/Activities

Of course, this is a city with the world famous Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Sq, Temple of Heave, Forbidden City and many more interesting places that are I am sure on many a bucket list. With a short layover, though, you cannot see everything. So pick one of those places that you can fully take in and enjoy without rushing around. You can also book tours for the Great Wall of China but I would advise you to at least be on a 10-hour Layover or more before doing this tour as the drive to and back takes a while, also factoring in the traffic in China. It would not be wise to miss your flight on the 72-hour Visa as the Chinese immigration officials will not be understanding about that. 

2. Research The Best Way To Get To The Chosen Location

On this occasion, we thought best to visit Lama Temple during our layover in Beijing. We looked at the closest station to Lama Temple. From there on we looked at what train line that station was on. How many times we needed to change trains to get to Lama Temple as well as the train from the airport into the city.

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Tips on China's 72-Hour Visa-Free Transit

China 72 Hour Visa-Free Transit

Let's face it, visas for those that don't so-called "most valuable passports for visa-free travel" can be a costly affair. When I heard about the 72 hour China Visa Policy, I thought it was the perfect way to make use  of our layover in China while my boyfriend and I were on our way to Cambodia in December last year. I still have to get a visa while my boyfriend qualifies for the new visa policy. Great that at least we don't have to blow £200 on visas, instead only pay for mine. I have been to China before so it was a great way to show my boyfriend around Beijing on his first visit to the country. At the moment, only 51 countries around the world can use the new visa policy. I would normally have to get my Chinese visa in London while he qualifies for the new 72 Hour Visa in China. Mine doesn't take very long in London. They offer a one day service or one over a couple of days for about £90. When I visited Hong Kong a couple of years ago I also managed to get a Chinese Visa from there and that was sorted out within a few hours  as well. Just note that if you use an actual visa processing place they charge a reasonable price compared to some hotels that may way charge you 3 times as much to process the visa. While I processed my visa in London, I used China's 72 Hour Visa Policy to sort out my boyfriend's visa for our visit in Beijing. Below I have tips on what to expect and what your need to arrange the Chinese visa as well as making the most on your city layover, whether that is a layover in Shanghai, Xiamen, or Guangzhou. You can also check my explorations of Guangzhou on my last visit to China.

The Cities In China Using The 72 Hour Visa Policy

At the moment, you can only utilise the new visa policy from a few of China's main airports. Currently, you can only use this new visa policy if you are from on of the 51 countries listed below or if you are arriving through one of the 18 cities that have adopted this new 72-hour visa policy.  Also bear in mind that where you are allowed to visit also depends on your port o arrival. If you arrive in Beijing, Chongqing, Harbin, Guilin, Guilin, Xiamen, Tianjin, and Kunming, you cannot live this administrative area of your transit city. In other words, if you are transiting in Beijing, you have to stay in Beijing and exit from Beijing. So if you want to Visit two cities just ensure you double check that you can move on to another city within the province. Besides not that the 72-hour visa is enough to do that anyway. Some cities like Shanghai allow you to arrive in Shanghai and exit from another city. This also means that if you arrive in Shanghai, Zhejiang or Jiangsu, your 72-hour visa becomes 144-hour visa. Note that these visa policies only apply if entering China by air and not other means like, say if you were driving from another city or country and entering China that way.  Currently, the cities allowing use of this 72-hour visa policy are: Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing, Harbin, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Dalin, Xian, Guilin, Kunming, Wuhan, Xiamen, Tianjin, Nanjing, Qingdao, Changsha and Hangzhou

Countries That Can Use China's New Visa Policy

As my boyfriend has dual nationality but also holds a British passport, so he qualifies for this new visa policy. We also found that we didn't have to contact the airline and notify them of our desire to have a layover in the city. Most posts online say you have to do this, but in fact, DO NOT have to tell your airline, especially for Beijing. If travelling to other Chinese cities, feel free to mention it at check-in but it wasn't necessary when we travelled to Beijing. If you hold a passport any of the following countries you will qualify for the 72-hour visa and therefore, do not need to get a visa before travelling to China for a layover.

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