China visa-free entry for Australians: how the 30-day rule works

Australian passport holders can currently enter mainland China without a visa for stays of up to 30 days. This is a unilateral policy China introduced for Australia in mid-2024 (originally 15 days), extended to 30 days later that year, and renewed since. It has an expiry date that keeps being pushed out, so the one thing to do before booking flights is check the current end date on the Chinese Embassy in Australia website, or ask us.

What the visa-free entry covers

• Purposes: tourism, visiting family and friends, business meetings and exchanges, and transit.
• Length: up to 30 days per entry, counted from the day after you arrive.
• Passport: an ordinary Australian passport. It needs to be valid for the whole stay; six months’ validity is the safe standard airlines apply.
• Entries: multiple. You can leave and come back, each visit up to 30 days.

What it does not cover

• Working, studying, journalism or anything else that needs a specific visa category.
• Stays over 30 days. If you want 31 days, you need a visa for the whole trip, not just the extra day.
• Hong Kong and Macau have their own rules (Australians get 90 and 30 days respectively) and entering them does not reset your mainland count unless you actually leave the mainland and come back.
• Tibet still requires a separate permit arranged through a travel agency, regardless of visa status.

At the border

You fill in the usual arrival card (or the digital version on the China immigration app) and go through foreigner passport control. Fingerprints are taken on first entry. Officers may ask where you are staying; have your first hotel name and address handy, in Chinese if possible. We send clients a one-page arrival sheet with this on it.

Expect the whole thing to take 20 to 40 minutes at Pudong on a normal day.

Hotel registration

Every foreigner in China has to be registered with the local police within 24 hours of arriving. Hotels do this automatically at check-in, which is why they need your passport. If you stay with family in a private home, you or your host should register at the local police station; your guide can go with you.

Practical notes

• Book flights with the visa-free end date in mind. If your return date is after the end date, you may need a visa even if you enter before it.
• Print or screenshot the embassy’s visa-free notice. Airline check-in staff in Australia occasionally ask for a visa; the notice settles it.
• Children on Australian passports are covered the same way.
• Dual nationals: if you hold a Chinese passport or hukou as well, speak to the embassy. China does not recognise dual nationality and the rules are different.

If anything above has changed when you read this, tell us and we will update it. We check it before every booking.