I'm travelling through Southeast Asia at the beginning of the new year and am a little confused on the visa requirement in China.
I'll be flying into Bangkok with one stop in Qingdao for an hour and a half and a second layover in Kunming for 19 hours. I intend to leave the airport in Kunming.
My final destination of the trip is Singapore, about a week after landing in Bangkok (transit to Singapore TBD).
According to the China Embassy website visas are required, however, they do have some exemptions, one of which being a Direct Transit Exemption:
A foreign citizen who is transiting through China by air is exempted from a visa if he/she will stay only in the airport for no more than 24 hours and has a valid connecting ticket with confirmed seating on an international flight.
Citizens with passport or other international travel document, confirmed interline ticket and valid visa to the third country or region (if required) of the following 51 countries, can apply to stay in the transit cities without visa for 72 hours on direct transit via the following airports: PEK, PVG, SHA, CAN, CTU,CKG, SHE, DLC, XIY,HGH,KWL,KMG. (For more info, please check the airports' websites)
Albania, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Montenegro, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States.
My flight out of Qingdao is not an international flight, it stops off in another China city before I take the next international flight into Thailand.
Does the Direct Transit Exemption apply to either of these layovers in China?
Trying to save as much money as possible and $140 for a couple layovers is frustrating, so much for saving big on the flight.