Use a transit visa

Both of Harry’s trips to mainland China run on a transit visa rather than a tourist one, and neither required applying in advance. The mechanism is worth understanding because it turns a country with a reputation for difficult entry into one you can decide to visit at short notice.

How it works. If you hold a passport from one of the qualifying countries — Harry gives the figure as 54 — and you have an onward ticket out of China to a third destination, you can enter visa-free for a fixed window. The route matters more than the paperwork: you come in one way and leave another, and Hong Kong or Macau count as the exit.

How Harry applies it

His first trip was six days in Shanghai on a transit visa obtained on arrival — the whole video exists because the entry was that easy.

The second was the 240-hour version, and he lays the route out explicitly: in through Shenzhen and out through Hong Kong, with Macau at the other end of the trip. He also notes what changed — UK passports have since become visa-free for mainland China outright, so he didn’t need it in the end, and he explains the policy anyway for everyone who does.

The related point he makes across both: Macau and Hong Kong are separate immigration systems, so moving between them and the mainland is a border crossing each time, and that is exactly what makes the transit route work.

Demonstrated in

• I Ignored the Media and Visited China 🇨🇳 — six days in Shanghai on a transit visa granted on arrival.
• I Went to One of the Wealthiest and Most Advanced Cities — the 240-hour policy explained in full, with the in-one-way-out-another route that satisfies it.