Traveling to China without a visa: super-fast immigration at Beijing airport

For the first time, post covid, I went back to China. As is well known, this nation has been one of the last to reopen the borders post-pandemic, and also one of the last to Remove various restrictions and compliances such as masks and pads.

Tourists, however, must not have resumed flying to Beijing and other destinations as they did before 2020, so the government has decided, on an experimental basis, to suspend the need (for a small group of travelers) to obtain a tourist visa, and more, before traveling to the dragon country.

No health declaration

On board Lufthansa flight LH722 that took me from Munich to Beijing, the flight attendants made the same announcement a couple of times. "Unless you have flu symptoms you are not required to fill out the health declaration." This restriction Was the last to be eliminated, although not really for everyone.

Arrival in Beijing

I landed at the airport in Beijing Capital (PEK) just before 12 o'clock, and the first thing that greeted me was Her Majesty the Queen of Heaven. Air China is the only carrier, along with Lufthansa and Korean Air, to have the 747/8 in its fleet the latest and greatest version of the Jumbo that changed the fortunes of aviation in the 1970s.

Airport Terminal in Beijing Capital practically deserted, and after a long series of treadmills we arrived at border control.

I had already filled out the arrival card on the plane, I wonder why there are still companies that do not deliver it on board, it saves valuable time on arrival. Similarly, I wonder why passengers do not fill it out on board when it is delivered, and lose time upon arrival.

Immigration procedures

The first stop was at the fingerprint enrollment machines., it is not mandatory, but doing it independently saves time when you get in front of the immigration officer, and since there was no one in line I preferred to do it that way.

Having obtained the fingerprint registration receipt, I headed for border control. I didn't expect to see such a quiet situation, especially when I think that the last time I arrived at T4 at JFK it took me almost 2 hours to get through immigration control.

Arriving at my turn I was "prepared" to answer all the questions and I had all the information at my fingertips possible to confirm my intention to stay only a few days:

• Arrival flight ticket
• Booking the return flight
• Hotel reservation

The agent was very "thorough" in checking all my stamps on my passport, on the arrival card there is a half line where it is asked to write down the countries visited in the last 3 years, I would have needed a protocol sheet to make the complete list, but it didn't help.

After rechecking the prints, I got my stamp and continued my journey. With this mode, it is possible to stay in China up to a maximum of 15 days. 

This is also a small improvement, previously the visa was a sticker that took up an entire page of the passport, Now instead it's just one little stamp which takes up a few cm and avoids shortening the life of the precious document.

In conclusion

I expected a lot more bureaucracy, instead really everything as easy as drinking a glass of water. When I think about certain performances such as the recent one in Cambodia or to the queues I often stand in when I arrive in Thailand, Vietnam, or the United States,

This was also my "first time" at Beijing and I was also lucky because, thanks to the Chinese New Year, I was able to live in a (nearly) deserted city that was very livable and I also saw blue skies several times, which is not taken for granted.