Route
Choose a legal 240h route before booking flights, hotels, or trains.
Confirm passport eligibility, A to China to B country or region logic, mainland entry and exit ports, and the stay window.
Check eligibilityBuild the trip around a legal 240h route first
Your stay window sets your radius: 24 hours = one city, 72 = day trips, 240 = a multi-city rail loop.
- 24h · One city
- 72h · Day trips
- 240h · Rail loop
Start with entry port, mainland exit port, third-country or third-region destination, eligible stay areas, and the proof airline check-in will ask for. The sightseeing calendar comes after the route shape is legal.
The planning order
Do these in order before flights, hotels, or high-speed rail tickets become expensive to change.
Hotel
Lock the first-night address with arrival-card proof in mind.
Use a foreign-passport-friendly hotel and keep the Chinese address consistent across CDAC, airline, and backup documents.
Prepare arrival cardTrain
Book HSR only after the route is legal.
Handle passport name order, 12306 verification, payment, station entry, and exit-port proof after the transit route passes.
View HSR route notesThe risky part is not whether Beijing or Shanghai is worth visiting
The risky part is whether your A to China to B route, exit mode, and stay areas survive airline check-in and Chinese border inspection. Treat the itinerary as a compliance problem first and a sightseeing plan second.
Route templates
Template routes that pass facts into Check
Each row uses a 240h port from the project policy snapshot and links directly to Check with the route facts pre-filled.
| Route template | A to China to B example | Compliance watchpoint | Check route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Different mainland entry and exit portsBeijing in, Shanghai out to a third regionStay-area note: Entering and leaving through different provinces is fine — the permitted activity areas of 24 provinces and municipalities are open and you may cross province lines between them. | SFO -> PEK -> PVG -> ICN | The onward destination after mainland China must be a third country or third region, not the same country or region as the origin before China. | Check route |
| Same mainland port, different onward regionShanghai in and out when A and B differStay-area note: You may travel well beyond the province you entered. Check each overnight stop against the permitted activity areas. | SFO -> PVG -> PVG -> ICN | Using the same port is not the issue; origin and destination still need to be different countries or regions under the A to China to B rule. | Check route |
| Rail exit to Hong KongGuangzhou or Shenzhen area with West Kowloon rail exitStay-area note: Guangdong is open in whole. Keep the rail exit proof with you. | LAX -> CAN -> WEST-KOWLOON-RAIL -> HKG | WEST-KOWLOON-RAIL is in the current port snapshot, but airline staff may still ask for clear onward proof to Hong Kong as the third region. | Check route |
| Western China air exitChengdu in, Chongqing out to a third countryStay-area note: Use Chengdu and Chongqing city guide facts, and re-check if adding other Sichuan stops. | HKG -> TFU -> CKG -> SIN | Sichuan and Chongqing are separate stay-area facts in the snapshot, so do not assume a whole western-China roaming zone beyond the listed plan. | Check route |
| Northern history routeBeijing in, Xi'an out to a third regionStay-area note: Beijing and Shaanxi are both open in whole, so this pairing stays inside the permitted activity areas. | SFO -> PEK -> XIY -> ICN | The origin and destination still need to be different, and any extra northern stops need stay-area review before booking. | Check route |
| Guangxi scenic routeGuilin entry with a third-region onward flightStay-area note: Use the Guilin city guide and avoid assuming every Guangxi side trip is covered without re-checking the port and stay-area facts. | BKK -> KWL -> KWL -> HKG | Same-port Guangxi plans still need a different destination region after mainland China and confirmed onward proof at check-in. | Check route |
Use the rest of the toolchain after the route passes
The same facts can flow into the practical prep tools so the route, arrival card, counter proof, and first 72 hours stay aligned.
CDAC arrival card
Keep passport country, port, and first-night address consistent before landing.
Open CDAC prepBoarding Kit
Turn the route into airline-counter proof with policy snapshot, ports, and itinerary details.
Build counter proofEssentials
Prepare data, payment, insurance, document backup, and hotel proof before departure.
Review essentialsCity guides
Use Chongqing, Xi'an, and Guilin guides after the compliance route is settled.
Browse city guidesHSR routes
Compare mainstream high-speed rail city pairs after the legal transit route is checked.
Open HSR routesRoute facts checked against policy snapshot 2026-06-04 and the project CheckFlow query contract.