English

If you have been curious about China but are not ready to commit months to it, the window is now considerably wider than it used to be.

1. Where the policy stands

Under an announcement issued by China’s National Immigration Administration on 20 August 2026, citizens of Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam became eligible for the 240-hour visa-free transit policy and Hainan’s 30-day visa-free entry from that date. The 240-hour transit policy now covers 57 countries, and Hainan’s 30-day scheme covers 61.

The essentials come down to four points:

• Hold an ordinary passport and a confirmed onward ticket with a fixed date and seat to a third country or region;
• Enter through any of 65 open ports, including Beijing and Shanghai;
• Stay visa-free for no more than 240 hours within the designated area;
• Engage in tourism, business, visits or family visits during the stay.

2. What 240 hours is actually good for

240 hours is ten days — and its value is widely underestimated.

Converted into language study: three to four hours of intensive class per day, plus real use in the street afterwards, is roughly equivalent to one to two months of a standard evening course. And compared with practising from a textbook at home, learning inside the language environment produces a difference of an order of magnitude. Ordering food, asking directions, hailing a taxi, greeting a neighbour — every exchange is real feedback.

This is why short immersion programmes have become popular: arrive on visa-free transit or a short study visa, complete a concentrated block in China, then maintain it online after returning home.

3. Three common mistakes

1. Treating transit as entry. The policy requires an onward ticket to a third country or region. Your itinerary has to genuinely be a transit, not a one-way arrival.

2. Ignoring the area restriction. The stay is limited to designated areas. Confirm the scope before you plan a long cross-province trip.

3. Doing visa-requiring activities on a visa-free entry. Study and employment have their own requirements. If you want a systematic course beyond a short period, the correct route is a study visa (X1 for long-term, X2 for short-term) issued on the basis of admission documents from a qualified institution — not the transit exemption.

4. If you need longer

Many learners want more time after a short immersion. There are two compliant paths:

• Apply for a study visa (X1 for long-term, X2 for short-term) with admission documents from an institution authorised to enrol foreign students;
• Join a short study programme and complete concentrated training within what your visa permits.

Mandarin Edu has long welcomed short-term learners to Wuxi and can support everything from course scheduling to accommodation advice. If you need admission documents for a study visa application, we can discuss that specifically.