Do I Need A Visa for Guangzhou If Traveling from Hong Kong?

No visa will be needed if you are qualified for 24-hour visa-free transit in Guangzhou. Passengers going to a third country or region after transiting in Guangzhou within 24 hours qualify for the free transit policy. For example, if you travel from Hong Kong and intend to go to another country or region instead of HK, and your layover time in Guangzhou is under 24 hours, you can enjoy the 24-hour transit without visa (TWOV). In this case, you don’t need to apply for visa.

 Note: The 24-hour visa-free transit is only eligible in Guangzhou Baiyun Airport. That is to say, passengers taking a ferry or train can not transit in Guangzhou without a visa.
 

Travelers from 54 countries such as USA, UK and France are able to apply for the 144-hour TWOV if they transit in Guangzhou for less than 144 hours. The 144 hours TWOV enables people to leave the transit area and enter the city for sightseeing. Please note that only flying from Hong Kong to Guangzhou is eligible for the 144-hour visa-free transit, and this is not qualified for the passengers who take a high speed train or ferry to transit in Guangzhou.

 Note: Hong Kong – Guangzhou – Hong Kong is not a qualified transit, so if you come from HK and leave Guangzhou for HK, you should apply for a visa before your departure. 

If your country has established diplomatic relations with China, and you enter Guangzhou escorted by a Hong Kong tourist group, you are entitled to 6 days visa exemption. The cities of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Zhaoqing, and Huizhou can be visited, too.
 

If traveling with a French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swiss, Dutch, Belgian, Austrian or Bruneian passport, and the total layover time is under 15 days, you don't need to apply for a visa for Guangzhou. The reason is that all the citizens of these countries are qualified to enjoy the 15-day visa-free entry to mainland China.

Qatari,  Thai, UAE and Singaporean citizens are exempted from China visa for 30 days. Thus, there is no need for them to apply for a visa to travel Guangzhou within one month.

For more countries eligible for China visa-free policy, please see detailed list on China Visa-free Policy
 

If you travel with a valid APEC Business Travel Card, the visit visa is not required when you pass through the immigration authority between Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Considered as a three-year visa with multiple entries, the APEC card will allow you to enter China for many times within its validity, and each duration is no more than 2 months.
 

Chinese visa is not required for travelers entering Guangzhou with valid Chinese residence permit (including permanent residence permit, aka Chinese green card). The Chinese exit and entry administration of the local public security bureau will issue the residence permit to those entering China holding X1 visa, Z visa, Q1 visa, J1 visa, S1 visa and D visa after their entry. With this permit, they can exit and enter mainland China for multiple times without applying visa. 
 

According to mutual visa-exemption agreements, the diplomatic, service or official passport holders from some foreign countries enjoy visa exemption after their entry to Guangzhou from Hong Kong.