Can I take the high-speed bullet train Beijing–Hong Kong under Chinese 144 h visa-free transit rules?
- By
- Aparna Patel
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- 29 Jul, 2023
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While Doc’s answer covers the most important formalities, in case you are interested why you can only take the slower Z sleeper train, The Man in Seat 61 has the answer:
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The fast G train calls multiple times between Beijing and Hong Kong, making it a ‘normal’ train. TWOV rules require you to stay in a small area of the country (i.e. the Beijing area) but once you’re on that train you could just exit anywhere en route and defy the rules.
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The slow Z sleeper train has no passenger stops between Hong Kong and Beijing. To quote:
The train stops twice between Beijing and Hong Kong but you can’t get off the train for a smoke or small walk as they lock the doors.
That’s also why they can do immigration formalities at Beijing West: they know that everybody who boards that train will leave China. Thus, that is indeed an international departure in the Beijing area.
(In actual operation, the Hong Kong train gets coupled to one from Guangzhou. While passengers between Guangzhou and Beijing can board or alight at any intermediate station, passengers going to our coming from Hong Kong can only board or alight at Beijing.)
The important point is where you will pass through immigration.
The 144-hour visa-free transit requires that you stay within a certain area of your arrival point, and depart the country from within that same area. For Beijing, that means that you must stay within the Beijing/Tianjin/Hebei area – which obviously does not include the vast majority of the distance to Hong Kong!
As you’ve said, there are a few options for trains to Hong Kong. The high-speed “G” trains which take around 9 hours, and the conventional “Z” trains which take around 24 hours.
Other than the speed, these trains are also different in where you pass through immigration. For the high-speed G trains, both Chinese and Hong Kong immigration occurs in Hong Kong. This means that these trains are NOT eligible for the 144 hour visa-free transit, as you are travelling across much of China before officially exiting the country – which is not allowed under this visa-free transit.
However for the slower Z trains, you pass through immigration in Beijing before departing – which meets the requirements of the visa-free transit. Thus it IS possible to catch these trains to Hong Kong using the 144-hour visa free program.
The 144 hours visa program is only available to citizens of 53 countries, which does not include Turkey. However, as long as you are a citizen of one of those countries then having a Turkish visa in your passport should not be an issue. I have multiple Turkish visas in my passport, and have never had a problem entering China.
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There are 2 issues here:
- You have to make sure you’re holding a passport in the list of eligible countries, having a Turkish visa stamp on your passport doesn’t matter but having a Turkish passport will NOT make you eligible for this program
- If you use the 144 hour visa, you can only stay within the administrative precincts of your port of entry (Beijing), so getting on a train to Hong Kong would likely violate that
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘
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