Hainan 30-Day Visa-Free Access

Simply speaking, such an itinerary is not eligible for any kind of visa free transit scheme because to be eligible to enjoy visa free transit, this itinerary misses the third country. Also, this itinerary is not eligible for a Shenzhen VOA because it is not allowed to use a Shenzhen VOA to travel to a destination within mainland China. In the end, any visa free option and VOA for Hainan requires that a visitor arrives directly from some foreign country and not from a mainland Chinese airport.

In short, you friend will need a Chinese tourist (L) visa obtained in advance. Simply speaking, there is no other option. Of course, you can rearrange the flights to use Hong Kong instead of Shenzhen.

Your itinerary:

Melbourne - Haikou - Chongqing - Rome and back...

HU484 - HU7991
HU7992 - HU483

Is perfectly eligible for 24 hour visa free transit both ways. This option with HU7991/HU7992 seems to be quite popular lately.

Just to clarify some details...

You really don't have to do almost anything. You will just print out your tickets and have them in hard copy. You will approach the check-in counter in Melbourne and declare that you will fly to Rome via two Chinese airports using 24 hour visa free transit. You will present your tickets and after that you will be allowed to board the plane.

Upon arrival in Haikou, you will approach 24 hour visa free transit counter where you will fill out the form and hand it, along with your tickets to the relevant person. They will take a look and you will be granted an entry permit. After that, you will clear the formalities (immigration). You will see whether you will have to collect your luggage or not because this detail depends entirely upon your airline. In any case, you have enough time and you will manage to do it and to make new check-in if necessary. During your stay in Chongqing you don't need to apply for anything. You will just get an exit stamp and your flight will proceed for Rome.

For your travel back from Rome to Melbourne, you will do exactly the same thing... The difference is that you will have to apply for an entry permit in Chongqing because after Chongqing you have a domestic portion of your international flight.

In the end, you should not bother yourself with 30 visa free access because this is not applicable for you within your itinerary. You will rely on 24 hour visa free transit both ways of your journey.

Here are the steps, you have to follow:

- You are supposed to determine how many days you will spend in Hainan province
- You should also take care of your flight tickets and here one warning... You are not allowed to arrive to Hainan by taking a flight through some other mainland Chinese airport. The best option is Hong Kong, but keep in mind that this flight has to be nonstop and not again through some of mainland Chinese airports. Also, you are not allowed to leave Hainan on a flight that has a stop in mainland China.
- After you have determined the above mentioned, you will write down your short itinerary in English language that will have most of your details that you will do while in Hainan, but very shortly.
- You will contact a relevant agency that supports a correspondence in English language. You can find a list of Tour Operators in Hainan in the upper left part of this site.
- Keep in mind that during your correspondence you will be offered several services and you are supposed to accept one or more of them according to your preferences. The mentioned offers range from an airport transfer to multi day trips.

You are supposed to start your correspondence with the agency well in advance, so that you have enough time to clarify all the necessary details. Some visitors to Hainan prefer to start their correspondence with the agency even before they have bought their tickets and accommodation because they want to have everything clear before their first move.

You cannot obtain 30 day visa free access on arrival. It has to be through an agency.

If you join a tour group, then it is logical that such a group will have an agency that will do all the necessary formalities with a local agency in Hainan. So, you will not be bothered with personal correspondence with a local agency, but your tour group leader will have to deal with an agency and also book from them some of their offers.

When you apply for this visa free option, you just receive a positive confirmation from an agency via an email, so it is irrelevant where you are at the moment when the agency informs your about the fact that this access has been granted to you. The whole process is processed swiftly, so you can count that the entire correspondence will not take more than 5 days.

Definitely no. Sanya and the entire Hainan province are considered to be mainland China in the same way as it is Beijing. Just to simplify... Your visit to Hainan (Sanya) from Xiamen will be treated as purely domestic flight in the same way as you were flying from Xiamen to Beijing. In other words, your visa will not be consumed.

Actually, correct name is 30 day visa free access, although on so many places you will see the phrase "free visa" or similar. In reality, there is no visa at all. Never mind :)

The procedure is quite easy:

- You are supposed to determine how many days you will spend in Hainan province
- You should also take care of your flight tickets and here one warning... You are not allowed to arrive to Hainan by taking a flight through some other mainland Chinese airport. The best option is Hong Kong, but keep in mind that this flight has to be nonstop and not again through some of mainland Chinese airports. Also, you are not allowed to leave Hainan on a flight that has a stop in mainland China.
- After you have determined the above mentioned, you will right down your short itinerary in English language that will have most of your details that you will do in while in Hainan, but very shortly.
- You will contact a relevant agency and here I will definitely recommend that you contact this agency, Travel China Guide. You can contact them through email or available Online Inquiry Form to define all the details for your upcoming holiday on Hainan island.
- Keep in mind that during your correspondence you will be offered several services and you are supposed to accept one or more of them according to your preferences. The mentioned offers range from an airport transfer to multi day trips.
- Beside this agency, you can also find a list of Tour Operators in Hainan in the upper left part of this site.

You are supposed to start your correspondence with the agency well in advance, so that you have enough time to clarify all the necessary details. Some visitors to Hainan prefer to start their correspondence with the agency even before they have bought their tickets and accommodation because they want to have everything clear before their first move.

Just to clarify. I am coming from Bangkok, Thailand. I must take a direct flight ? I can not make a flight corespondance in Guangzhou ?

The direct flight is twice the price ... This is why I am asking.

Thierry, I understand you completely, but unfortunately, you really cannot take a flight to Hainan via Guangzhou without a pre-arranged Chinese visa. It has to be a flight from some other country, different than mainland China and, of course, it can be Hong Kong and Macau. Of course, if your calculation shows that this trip via some other country is very expensive, I would advise you to think about the usual Chinese tourist (L) visa that you can obtain before your travel. Like this, you would be able to take a flight via Guangzhou and also to arrive to Hainan without the need to do anything with the agency. Tourist visa obtained in advance covers Hainan island in the same way as it does for Beijing and Shanghai.

Thank you. That was very helpful.

By the way I tried to contact Travel China Guide but they said they were unable to help.
I will try other travel agencies.

Of course. There will be always somebody willing to do something for a fair price :)