240-Hour Transit Itinerary from Beijing
Ten visa-free days entering at Beijing, and the northern heritage loop most transit travellers never find. Plus the booking that has to happen before you leave home.
Most people who enter China on a visa-free transit permit at Beijing spend all ten days in Beijing.
That is not a bad trip — Beijing can hold ten days. But it wastes the part of the policy that changed in December 2024, which is that you may now enter at one approved port, travel across 24 provinces and municipalities, and leave from a different port entirely. Beijing sits at the head of the best rail network in the country, and there are three provinces within four hours of it that almost no foreign visitor sees.
This guide covers the mechanics of the permit at Beijing's ports, then three routes: one that stays in the capital, one northern heritage loop, and one that exits from Shanghai.
The permit, in order
Eligibility. Ordinary passport holders from 55 countries as of May 2026 — 40 European, six in the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, and seven Asian nations including South Korea, Japan and Singapore. Passport valid at least three months. The list has changed twice in two years; verify yours against the National Immigration Administration.
The onward ticket to a third country or region. Within 240 hours, confirmed, and genuinely to somewhere other than where you came from.
- London → Beijing → Tokyo ✓
- London → Beijing → London ✗
- Los Angeles → Beijing → Hong Kong ✓
- Los Angeles → Beijing → Shanghai → Los Angeles ✗
Your departing airline can and does check this at the origin airport.
The clock. After the border authority issues the temporary entry permit, the 240 hours begin at 00:00 on the day after entry. Arrive 22:40 on 3 May, and your window runs from 00:00 on 4 May to 00:00 on 14 May. The arrival evening is effectively free — treat it as insurance, not as an extra day to schedule.
The permitted area. 24 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. For a Beijing entry the useful ones are Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Shandong, Liaoning and Heilongjiang, plus the whole eastern and southern block. Excluded: Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Ningxia, Qinghai, Gansu and Jilin. Inner Mongolia matters here — it is closer to Beijing than several permitted provinces and it is off limits.
Beijing's ports. Capital International Airport (PEK) and Daxing International Airport (PKX). They are roughly 80 km apart with no quick link between them, so know which one your inbound flight uses.
At the airport
No advance application, no fee. At PEK or PKX, find the counter for temporary entry permits — signposted for visa-free transit, separate from the main immigration lines. Hand over your passport, your onward third-country booking, and a completed arrival card. An officer verifies and issues the permit into your passport.
Allow an hour. It is a manual check and it queues badly when several long-haul arrivals land in the same window.
Have the onward booking on paper as well as on your phone, and your first hotel's address written in Chinese characters.
The online arrival card is a separate, free procedure from the transit permit. Complete it; ignore any website asking for a fee.
Book the Forbidden City before you fly
This is the one thing on a Beijing transit trip that cannot be fixed after arrival.
Tickets release seven days ahead at around 20:00 Beijing time and peak-season dates clear in minutes. Admission is ¥60 from 1 April to 31 October and ¥40 from 1 November to 31 March. Closed Mondays except statutory holidays.
If you land on a Tuesday and want to visit on the Wednesday, you are booking from home the previous Wednesday evening. Beijing time is UTC+8 — for a European traveller that release window is early afternoon; for North America it is the middle of the night. Set an alarm.
Booking is real-name against your passport number. Type it exactly as printed, including letters, and carry the same physical document.
Route 1: Beijing only, ten days
If this is a first trip to China, this is the right answer, and there is no shame in it.
Days 1–2. Arrival, then the imperial core: Tiananmen, the Forbidden City south to north, out the north gate and up Jingshan Park for the view over the roofs. Fifteen minutes of climbing and it is the only place the scale becomes legible.
Day 3. The Great Wall. Mutianyu for a comfortable restored section with a cable car, about 70 km northeast. Jinshanling for a partly unrestored ridge walk of two to three hours with a fraction of the crowd — a full ten-hour day, which on a ten-day trip you can afford. Book return transport in advance either way.
Day 4. Temple of Heaven in the morning, and the park around it, which is where the city's retirees do tai chi, sing and play cards. Then the hutongs around the Drum Tower and Nanluoguxiang.
Day 5. Summer Palace. It is far northwest and deserves the half-day it takes to get there and back.
Day 6. 798 art district, or the Capital Museum, or the Military Museum, depending on taste. A deliberately low-intensity day.
Day 7. Day trip to Tianjin — 30 minutes by high-speed rail from Beijing South to Tianjin, a former treaty port with intact European concession architecture along the Hai River. Almost no foreign tourists.
Days 8–9. Two flexible days. Use them for whatever you undersold earlier, or for a second Wall section, or for eating properly.
Day 10. Depart, with three hours before an international flight and the correct airport confirmed.
Route 2: The northern heritage loop, ten days
The version worth doing on a second visit, or a first visit if you already travel confidently.
| Days | Where | Getting there |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | Beijing | Arrive PEK/PKX |
| 4–5 | Datong | ~2 h HSR from Beijing |
| 6–7 | Pingyao | ~3 h HSR via Taiyuan |
| 8–9 | Xi'an | ~3 h HSR from Pingyao |
| 10 | Xi'an → depart, or return to Beijing | — |
Datong, in Shanxi, holds the Yungang Grottoes — fifth-century Buddhist cave sculpture on a scale comparable to Longmen and Mogao, and far less visited than either. The Hanging Temple at Hengshan is a separate day trip an hour south. Datong is also the base for some of the oldest surviving wooden architecture in China.
Pingyao is a walled Ming and Qing merchant town with its street plan and courtyard houses intact. It is touristed by domestic visitors and almost unknown to foreign ones. Two nights inside the walls.
Xi'an closes the loop with the Terracotta Army and the city wall. Tickets for the Terracotta Army release about seven days ahead on normal days and ten around public holidays.
From Xi'an you can fly out to a third country directly — Xi'an Xianyang has international service — or take the 4.5-to-6-hour train back to Beijing West for the departure. Check which is a permitted exit port for your route before you book.
Note on Inner Mongolia. Datong is close to the Inner Mongolian border and Hohhot is an easy add-on by rail. Do not do it. Inner Mongolia is outside the 240-hour permitted area.
Route 3: Beijing in, Shanghai out
| Days | Where |
|---|---|
| 1–3 | Beijing |
| 4–5 | Xi'an |
| 6 | Luoyang |
| 7–8 | Suzhou or Hangzhou |
| 9–10 | Shanghai, depart PVG |
The straight line south, using different entry and exit ports as the policy now allows.
Luoyang is the addition most people skip. The Longmen Grottoes sit a short ride from Luoyang Longmen station, which is directly on the Beijing–Xi'an high-speed line, so it costs you a night rather than a detour. If you are also doing Datong on another trip, Longmen and Yungang together give you two of China's three great Buddhist cave complexes.
Beijing West to Xi'an North is 4.5–6 hours. Xi'an to Luoyang is under two. Luoyang to Shanghai Hongqiao is around five to six.
Book all rail legs on 12306, where tickets typically release 15 days ahead. On a route with four separate legs, that 15-day window is the binding constraint on the whole plan — put a reminder in your calendar.
Booking sequence for a multi-city transit trip
On a route with three or four rail legs, the booking order matters more than the itinerary does.
T-15 days. The 12306 window opens. Book every rail leg on the same morning — Beijing–Datong, Datong–Pingyao, Pingyao–Xi'an, or whatever your version is. On a transit permit you have no slack to absorb a sold-out leg, because the exit date is fixed by your international ticket.
T-7 days, 20:00 Beijing time. Forbidden City. If you are only in Beijing at the start of the trip, this is a booking you make from home.
T-7 days. Terracotta Army, if Xi'an is on the route. Ten days ahead around public holidays.
Anytime. Great Wall transport, hotels, the Yungang Grottoes.
Every one of these is real-name against your passport. If you are travelling as a couple or a family, each person is booked individually and each needs their own passport number entered correctly.
One practical note on 12306: identity verification for a foreign passport requires confirming the passport, a mobile number and an email address. In 2026 this is largely automated and usually clears quickly, but do it before the 15-day window opens rather than on the morning tickets go on sale. Discovering that your account is unverified while a popular train sells out is an avoidable problem.
What breaks a transit trip
Miscounting the clock. 00:00 the day after entry. Write down the exact expiry.
Crossing out of the permitted area. Inner Mongolia from Datong, Gansu from Xi'an. Both are natural-looking extensions and both are outside the zone.
Relying on same-day travel before an international flight. Come back to the departure city the night before. Always.
Domestic flight delays. If a route needs an internal flight, build a spare day around it. Rail is more reliable on this network.
Booking the Forbidden City after arrival. By then it is often too late for the days you want.
If transit does not fit
You cannot use this policy on a straight return trip from home, and buying a throwaway onward ticket to satisfy the rule is a poor plan — it gets checked, and a boarding refusal at your origin airport costs more than a visa would have.
If you want more than ten days, a same-city round trip, or access to Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Tibet or Inner Mongolia, apply for a tourist visa. Start with the L visa guide.
Check your own nationality, passport, dates and route through the entry checker before buying anything non-refundable.
Official sources
- National Immigration Administration, visa-free transit: https://en.nia.gov.cn/n147418/n147463/c183412/content.html
- China Railway 12306, English site: https://www.12306.cn/en/
- Palace Museum ticketing: https://gugong.ktmtech.cn/
- Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum: https://www.bmy.com.cn/
Eligible nationalities, ports and permitted regions change. Verify each against the National Immigration Administration for your dates.
Last reviewed: 30 July 2026.