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China requires a yellow fever vaccination if you have been in a yellow fever country. I am assured by the people I will be working with that there is no yellow fever in their area. But apparently there is some elsewhere in the country (Peru).

I won't know whether I am going to China until after I leave Peru. If I get the vaccination after leaving Peru when I find out I need to go to China, will China deny entry?

"only if you are arriving from a country with risk of yellow fever. This does not include the US." is on the CDC website. I could interpret it as meaning that if my itinerary is Peru, Spain, Romania, USA, China, then I don't need the vaccination. But I don't want to bet the cost of a plane ticket of that interpretation!

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    When performing a Timatic query, you're asked to list countries the traveler has visited in the preceding six days. This is presumably because yellow fever has a three-to-six-day incubation period. Is there a chance you'd be entering China fewer than six days after leaving Peru? If not, I think you're safe in saying that you are not "arriving in China from Peru."
    – phoog
    Mar 3, 2016 at 20:51

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I can't recall if the immigration forms asked about visiting an area with Yellow Fever, but as Yellow Fever vaccinations are recorded in your travelers inoculation booklet, if they do ask, they will then know when you got the shot and when you were in Peru from your passport. And since Yellow Fever takes 10 days to be effective... free check up courtesy of the Chinese government?

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  • Free check-up? or expensive plane ticket out of the country?
    – WGroleau
    Dec 20, 2015 at 1:42
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    I guess I should note that I've presented my passport for entry to seven countries in the past fifteen months, and no one has looked to see where else I had been.
    – WGroleau
    Dec 20, 2015 at 1:44
  • Are you sure they didn't look at where you have been? Did they only open one page and stamp you in or did they flip through "looking for a blank page"? But even the last 7 didn't, what happens when number 8 DOES look through your passport. I am often amazed at travelers... "well it didn't happen last time, therefore it WON'T happen this time". Traveling with improper documents is never a good idea.
    – user13044
    Dec 20, 2015 at 1:55
  • One of them did have to look for a blank page, but he did not look at many of the pages, and on the two or three he did flip past, the stamps were basically illegible. OTOH, your amazement is misdirected: as I said, "I don't want to bet the cost of a plane ticket..." The fact that I even asked reveals I am not "assuming" it doesn't matter!
    – WGroleau
    Dec 20, 2015 at 2:04
  • My observation about travelers is a generalized comment based on many years of answering questions about travel, not aimed particularly at you, but it was your comment about "7 times before" that triggered it.
    – user13044
    Dec 20, 2015 at 2:11

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