Recently Air China offered many cheap tickets for their international route flight. However, the flight mostly require the passengers to change plane in Beijing. If you lucky enough, your next flight will be departed in few hours later. Otherwise, there is a possibility that you should wait for long hours (in my case is 16 hours) until your next flight.
There is a good news for you because you should not bored spending your waiting time in Beijing Airport, you could apply for a free 24/144 hours Visa in China. How to apply for this type of visa? I will give you guidance step by step as below:
Step 1
When you get off the airplane, then follow the sign “Exit, Baggage Claim”.
Keep walking until you see a counter with blue sign “24/144-hour International Transfer (Apply for Leaving Airport)”. It is located on the opposite of the boarding gate E11.
Step 2
An officer will check your ticket for next flight and decided whether you are eligible for the temporary visa. If so, then you need to fill a form “Arrival Card for Temporary Entry Foreigners”. The information to be filled in the card was pretty basic information. Do not forget to bring your own pen because the number of pen available is limited. After you complete the form, the officer will check it and then if everything is okay, she will ask you to queue in line. You can get the “Visa-free Permit Stamp” here. The process is pretty quick, the officer behind the desk not asking much question and voila, our passport already stamped with “Visa-free Permit Stamp” and we are ready to explore downtown Beijing right away!
Step 3
After you get the “Visa-free Permit Stamp”, walk to the left and pass through the “China Inspection and Quarantine”. Queue in the line for “Foreigners” to pass through the immigration.
Step 4
After you pass through the immigration, there is an escalator. Take the escalator down to the 2nd floor to take the APM mini-train to the international baggage claimarea on 2nd floor of T3-C.
Step 5
You are ready to explore Beijing! You could use the public transport such as train in order to avoid the traffic jam. Buy a Yikatong card for a hassle-free trip. You just need to scan the card every time you pass through the station gate.
Since we only have 16 hours (in which included 7 hours rest at the airport while waiting for the restaurant opening hours at 6 am), the we already made detailed itinerary for our short layover trip. You could find it here.