If traveling through China, the new 144-hour China transit visa is great to see the country without the hassle of applying for a full visa. Unlike traditional tourist visas, a transit visa is issued upon arrival in China. This means that you don’t need to apply before you get on the airplane, which is great. However, there are a number of conditions that you need to understand before you decide to take advantage of the 144-hour China transit visa.

Not every single country passport is eligible for China’s 144-hour transit visa. There’s a good chance, however, that yours is. Check below to make sure that your home country is on the list:

• European countries: Russia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia (FYROM), Albania, Belarus, Monaco.
• American countries: United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile.
• Asian countries:Korea, Japan, Singapore, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Qatar.
• Schengen Agreement countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.
• Oceania countries: New Zealand and Australia.

If your country is not listed above, you should contact your local Chinese embassy to find out what provisions they have for you in regards to the 144-hour transit visa. It never hurts to ask! At the very least, you might be eligible for the 72-hour transit visa.

 

Great Wall Tour:

One of the MUST DO thing in Beijing and we wanted to take our kids there. Our kids have Chinese (Mandarin) as second language in their school and have asked us numerous times about China and Great Wall of China. Anna and I did visit China and Great Wall back in 2004 but wanted to take our kids there. This was the best opportunity to do that while we transiting through Beijing on our way to Canada.

Beijing is a good place to visit the “sections” of the Great Wall built in Ming Dynasty. Most of the “sections” of the Great Wall open to tourists here are kids friendly and restored for the safety of travellers. But still there remain many wild ones (original and unrestored) – crumbling, overgrown and barred to walkers, but attracting adventure hikers. We did Badaling Great Wall section, which is very well managed and organised by the Wall Management Authorities.

Beijing autumn, specifically the two months from the mid-September to mid-November are the best season to visit Great Wall in a year. It’s always comfortably cool outside.

The best period autumn colours starts from October 15 throughout November 15 in Beijing with many trees changing theirs colours with charming autumn hues. Snap pictures or just take in a feast for the eyes!

Fairly big difference in temperature between early morning and afternoon. Wear a thin jacket, or a warm coat in the morning, long-sleeve shirts or short T-shirts in the afternoon.

We took taxi for day trip to the Great Wall. The drive was 1.5 hour each way from the city centre to Badaling Great Wall. We initially wanted to take a train to enjoy wall without being restricted to time but they are building the fast train line and have closed some of the train line sections. There are buses to replace but we did not want any hassle with the kids so decided on Taxi. We hired the Taxi for whole day to enjoy the wall in our own time and costed 800 RMB, which was around $35 each for family of 4.

Amazing and breathtaking views!

“It is better to see something once then to hear about it a thousand times” – Chinese Proverb

The quote is the very essence of the great wall experience! We were literally blown away at the beauty of The Wall! The rich history is one that is unforgettable and my kids took lot of interest in understanding it especially Isaac who is 9 now and grade 4, have more understanding of the historical significance of this great place.

A man made structure that’s well crafted given the limited resources that they have way back a hundreds of years ago.

The Great Wall, one of the greatest wonders of the world, was listed as a World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. Just like a gigantic dragon, it winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus, stretching approximately 21,196 kilometres from east to west of China.
Like a writhing dragon’s tail, the Great Wall of China snakes its way across China’s northern border. As its name suggests, the Great Wall is an imposing architectural marvel, and it’s often hailed as one of the greatest man-made wonders of the world.