Update, September 2026: two things below have changed. Swiss and EU citizens with an ordinary passport need no visa at all for a stay of up to 30 days, counted from the day after you land, at least until the end of 2026, so the waiting time for a visa no longer decides when you book. The 90 days mentioned further down is the maximum on a tourist visa, not what visa-free entry allows: stay longer than 30 days and you do need a visa arranged in advance. On the visa-free route a return ticket is recommended rather than required.
So, the first thing is actually not a Visa, but a flight ticket. This process is quite simple:
- Find your flight from your country (or other, like me in Italy) to China. They don’t care where your flight started or will return. (This applies for Europe at least…)
- Search on google flights, kiwi.com or other websites. Take a look on my website Getting around – Flights or on the ground. I also frequently use skyscanner.com.
- I prefer to stay with the same company, so the tickets are the same. I also only buy on the website of the airline, if I can, that eliminates the middleman and also a lot of problems.
- So, if you find a good deal on the price-comparing-websites, head to the official site and look at what they offer.
Websites to search flights
There are several ways to search for flight tickets. Here is a selection of them:
Skyscanner.com
Number 1
The best website with an app. Easy, seamless and the best prices.
+ It also has an App
Kiwi.com
For saving
In my experience, you can find here the cheapest tickets.
However, they may be the most uncomfortable.
Google flights
Informational
Tracks prices and displays a lot of information, when the ticket is cheaper.
Often higher prices than the other two websites.
Pay attention to these common errors:
Good, you found your flight, which is at least 1 month in the future. (You can also book a flight which is in 1 week, but why stress yourself? You still have the visa to do.)
Your Name
- Your full name must be on it, middle name, second name or whatever. You don’t want to risk it. If you fly in Europe or else, no one cares, but in this case they do.
- You can stay only up to 3 months (90 days) as a tourist.
- The ticket must be round-trip.
Everything done?
- Well, you bought your ticket and that’s it. Congrats. That was the easy part.
A little story from me: I forgot my middle name and was freaked out. Luckily, I booked with the same airline, and also on their website. The customer service was excellent, I could write them on Whatsapp, and for a small fee, they changed the tickets. Easy and quick.
Go to the next website to continue this process.
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