Flying in China on a foreign passport
Draft: not yet verified in the live app. Fees, limits, and menus change—confirm on the in-app payment screen and in the provider’s official Help.Verification status: DRAFT — verify in the live app before publish
China’s domestic network is fast, cheap and refreshingly simple on paper: a passport is a valid ID, no visa is needed for an internal flight, and the plane is often the only sensible way to cross 2,000 km. The failures are administrative, not aeronautical — a name typed in the wrong order, a ticket with no bag, or a taxi to the wrong airport.
Foreign passports are explicitly accepted for domestic flights, and there is no permit, no visa check and no route you cannot fly. Book through an international checkout — Trip.com is the path of least resistance — and the whole transaction takes about ten minutes. Three details decide whether the day goes smoothly. First, your name must match the passport’s machine-readable zone exactly, middle names included; a reversed or abbreviated name is the single most common reason a foreigner is refused at the counter. Second, the cheap fare you clicked may include no checked bag at all. Third, Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu each have two airports an hour apart — the city name on your booking is not enough. Add the 2026 rules: a 3C-marked power bank or it stays behind, and a fuel surcharge that was raised to ¥80 / ¥140 on 5 November 2026.
China Arrive is independent. It is not a partner of any airline, Trip.com, Ctrip, Fliggy, Alipay, WeChat, Apple, or Google, and it is not affiliated with any government. The phones on this page are illustrated screens, not photographs. Menus and fares move. Confirm the terminal, the bag, and the fare rules with the airline before departure.
The screens use a fictional passenger, JONES / EMMA CLAIRE, passport N84729103, and Visa •••• 2468. They are not a real booking.
- Arrive2 hoursBefore a domestic departure
- Checked bag20 kgFull-service economy allowance
- Check-in closes45 minBefore departure, sometimes 30
- Fuel surcharge¥80 / ¥140Short haul / long haul, from 5 Nov 2026
- Visa or permit0None for a domestic flight
- Booking in EnglishGenuinely easyTrip.com takes foreign cards and passport data without a Chinese phone number.
- Passport as IDFully acceptedBook, check in, clear security and board on the same physical passport.
- PriceCheap fare, real extrasBase fares look low until a bag and the fuel surcharge are added.
- Airport frictionThe hard partHuge terminals, manual counters, and two airports per city.
Rule of thumb: under about 1,000 km or 4 hours by rail, take the train. Beyond 1,200 km, fly. In between, compare door-to-door time, not flight time — the flight versus train section does the arithmetic. Passport rail booking is in the 12306 guide.
Jump to a section: three doors · five screens · name rule · baggage · two-hour clock · two airports · what it costs · flight or train · checklist
Three doors to the same seat
The inventory is identical. What differs is whether the checkout will take your card and whether anyone will answer in English.
Recommended · International
Trip.com
Ticket price · no booking fee on most fares
- Visa, Mastercard, Amex, PayPal, Apple Pay
- Passport fields built for foreign names
- No Chinese phone number required
- 24/7 English support, app-based changes
- Flights and train tickets in one app
- Occasional small service fee on cheap fares
Airline direct · No markup
Airline site or app
Ticket price only · English pages vary by carrier
- Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, Hainan
- No third-party markup or service fee
- Direct control of changes and refunds
- Foreign cards are sometimes rejected at payment
- Account may demand a Chinese mobile number
- Support usually Chinese-only
Avoid · Domestic checkout
Ctrip CN / Fliggy / mini-apps
Often the lowest promo fares
- Cheapest prices during sales
- Useful if a Chinese friend books for you
- Checkout expects UnionPay, WeChat Pay or Alipay funded locally
- Foreign Visa / Mastercard frequently fail
- Interface and support in Chinese
- Passport entry fields are awkward
The airport counter is not a backup plan. Walk-up fares on the day are usually full-price, often several times the online fare, and the agent may not speak English. Book before you travel, even if it is the night before.
Booking, in five screens
Ten minutes on a laptop, or fifteen on a phone. The only screen that needs real care is the passenger form. China Arrive does not sell these tickets. The frames below are illustrated screens, not photographs of Trip.com or an airline app.
1 Search by airport, not by city 1 min
Enter the city and the app will show every airport it serves — Beijing PEK and PKX, Shanghai SHA and PVG, Chengdu CTU and TFU. Pick the one that matches your hotel side of town, then compare.
Sort by total price, not by departure time: the cheapest fare is often at 06:30 from the secondary airport.
2 Read the fare, not just the price 2 min
Chinese fares are sold in branded tiers: the cheapest is usually non-refundable and bag-less, the next one up includes 20 kg. The difference is often ¥80–150 — far less than paying for a bag at the airport.
Check three things before you continue: checked baggage, change/refund rules, and whether the fare is for the airport you want.
A ¥520 fare with no bag plus ¥300 for a 20 kg suitcase is more expensive than the ¥690 fare that includes it. Compare the final number.
3 Enter the passport exactly 3 min
Surname and given names go in separate fields, spelled as printed, with middle names included. Nationality, passport number, issue and expiry dates, and date of birth must all match.
One passenger record = one passport. If you renew your passport after booking, the ticket usually cannot be updated — contact the airline before you travel.
The classic error: booking “Emma Jones” when the passport reads “JONES, EMMA CLAIRE”. Middle names are part of your identity here; leaving one out can stop you at the counter.
4 Pay and keep the e-ticket number 2 min
Your bank may send a one-time code. If the payment fails, it is almost always the issuer's fraud filter — ask the bank that issued the card to authorise the merchant. A linked foreign card in Alipay or WeChat Pay is a separate setup; this checkout is the international card on the booking site.
You will get an e-ticket number starting with the airline code (for example 999- for Air China). Save it: it is what the counter and the app use, not your booking reference alone.
5 Check in 24–48 hours before 2 min
Online check-in opens roughly a day ahead. Use it to choose a seat, but expect a physical boarding pass anyway: Chinese self-service kiosks are built around the national ID card and usually cannot read a foreign passport.
Go to the staffed counter with your passport. Budget ten minutes for the queue even if you checked in online.
- Passenger
- JONES / EMMA CLAIRE
- Flight
- CA1502
- Date
- 18 NOV
- Boarding
- 07:20
Gate C12
Seat 32A
Sequence 024 · decorative bars, not a scannable code
Boarding closes 15 min before departure
The name rule, which decides everything
Airlines here run on the passport’s machine-readable zone, not on what feels natural. Three records must be identical: the booking, the check-in, and the security scan.
Passport reads
Machine-readable zone, bottom two lines. Sample only — not a real passport.
N847291037GBR9403224F3409157<<<<<<<<<<<<<<08
Surname JONES · Given names EMMA CLAIRE · middle name included · no punctuation.
How to type it
One correct line, three that fail
| ✓ JONES / EMMA CLAIRE | Matches the MRZ |
| ✕ Emma Jones | Reversed fields |
| ✕ Jones, Emma C | Comma and abbreviation |
| ✕ EMMA JONES | Middle name dropped |
Name changes are not a customer-service favour. Most Chinese carriers treat a name correction as a refund-and-rebook, or charge a fee and require evidence. Fix it at the booking screen — it is the only free moment.
Same passport throughout
Buy, check in, clear security and board on the same physical document. A photo or a saved picture of the bio page is refused, and a renewed passport can invalidate the ticket.
Validity
China does not demand six months' validity for a domestic flight, but your airline may. If your passport expires within three months, renew before you book.
Children and infants
Each traveller needs their own passport and their own passenger record. Infant fares are a percentage of the adult fare and carry no seat.
Baggage: where cheap fares stop being cheap
Full-service carriers include a bag. Low-cost carriers frequently include none, and the airport rate is punitive.
Checked allowance, economy
Typical free allowance by carrier type. Scale runs 0–40 kg.
Business 30 kg, first 40 kg on full-service carriers.
Cabin baggage
Same on almost every carrier
5 kg, one bag, 55 × 40 × 20 cm, plus a small personal item. Low-cost carriers weigh cabin bags at the gate and charge more there than online.
Excess baggage
The number that ruins budgets
Charged per kilo at about 1.5% of the published one-way economy fare. On a ¥1,000 fare that is ¥15/kg — a 20 kg overage is ¥300. Pre-purchase online where the option exists.
Weigh your bag at the hotel. The gate scale is unforgiving, and the gate fee is the highest price of all.
Airport day: the two-hour clock
Chinese airports are efficient but enormous. The sequence below assumes a major hub; add 15 minutes at Daxing, Pudong or Tianfu.
At the terminal, not the metro
Check the terminal number on your booking before you get in the taxi. At PEK, T3 and T2 are a train ride apart. For the ride itself, see DiDi for visitors.
Manual check-in, not the kiosk
Look for your airline's row on the departure board. Self-service machines generally cannot read foreign passports — join the staffed queue.
Passport, bag, boarding pass
The agent verifies your document, tags the bag and prints a paper boarding pass. Counters close 45 minutes before departure — at some airports, 30.
Liquids, laptops, power bank
Liquids in containers of 100 ml or less; laptop out; belt and coat off; lighters confiscated. Your power bank must have a visible 3C mark.
This takes longer than you think
Gates can be 15 minutes from security, and the moving walkways are one-way. Find it first, buy coffee second.
Boarding shuts early
Boarding starts about 30–40 minutes before departure and closes 10–20 minutes before. Miss it and the ticket is waste paper.
The power bank rule (2026)
Strictly enforced since 28 June 2025
- Must carry a clear 3C mark — no mark, no flight, no exceptions.
- ≤100 Wh: fine. 100–160 Wh: airline approval, max 2. >160 Wh: banned.
- Carry-on only — never in checked luggage.
- No charging devices in flight; keep it switched off and insulated.
- Swollen, cracked or recalled units are refused.
What else gets confiscated
Security is thorough, not theatrical
Lighters and matches (both directions, including checked bags), knives and multitools, aerosols over 100 ml, and any lithium battery in a checked bag. Duty-free alcohol bought at a Chinese airport is fine sealed.
Two airports per city
This is the most expensive mistake in the whole process. The city name on your ticket does not tell you which airport you need.
| City | Airport A | Airport B | Between them | Who flies where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beijing | PEK Capital, north-east | PKX Daxing, far south | ~80 km, 1 h – 1 h 30 by road | Air China, Hainan, Grand China at PEK. China Southern, China Eastern, Capital, China United at PKX. |
| Shanghai | SHA Hongqiao, west | PVG Pudong, east | ~60 km, 1 h by Metro Line 2 | Most domestic flights use SHA. Many international and some domestic use PVG. Flying into PVG and out of SHA is a 90-minute transfer. |
| Chengdu | CTU Shuangliu, south-west | TFU Tianfu, far south-east | ~70 km, 1 h by metro | Most domestic traffic moved to TFU; a minority of routes remain at CTU. Check the code, not the city. |
| Guangzhou | CAN Baiyun, T1 / T2 / T3 | — | Terminals are far apart | One airport, three terminals. T3 opened recently and is a long ride from T1. Confirm the terminal letter on your booking. |
| Xiamen | XMN Gaoqi, close to town | XMN (new) Xiang'an, outer island | Replacement under way | Xiang'an International is due to take over around end-2026. Confirm the field before booking onward transport. |
How to protect yourself: save a picture of the airport code, terminal and flight number, then show that picture to the taxi driver. “Beijing” is not an address; “PEK T3” is.
What the ticket really costs
Three components, one of which changes every few weeks. The fuel surcharge is set by the airlines and moves with oil prices.
Anatomy of a ¥880 ticket
Shanghai → Beijing, one way, November 2026
| Base fare | ¥690 |
| Fuel surcharge, >800 km | ¥140 |
| Airport fee | ¥50 |
| Total | ¥880 |
Short-haul flights (≤800 km) carry ¥80. Children pay half, infants nothing. The surcharge follows the ticketing date, not the travel date. The adjustment used here took effect on 5 November 2026.
When to buy
Booked too early is as bad as too late
| Long routes >1,500 km | 20–40 days ahead |
| Short routes <1,500 km | 7–15 days ahead |
| Peak season / holidays | 45–90 days ahead |
| Cheapest days | Tue, Wed, Sat |
| Cheapest times | Before 07:00, after 22:00 |
Airlines open only full-fare cabins months out; discount cabins load later.
If you cancel: the refund ladder
China Eastern's domestic rules from August 2026 — other carriers are similar but not identical
Two exceptions worth knowing. Some airlines (Air China, Shandong) offer a two-hour cooling-off after purchase — free or cheap cancellation if departure is still days away. And if the airline cancels or delays more than four hours, the refund is free regardless of fare.
Flight or train — and when flights slip
Compare door to door. A 2-hour flight is a 5-hour journey once you add the airport buffer and the ride into town. The bars below are modelled from published schedules plus typical buffers, not measured trips.
When a flight is delayed
What you are actually owed
| Airline-caused, 4–8 h | ¥200 |
| Airline-caused, 8 h + | ¥400 |
| Weather / air traffic control | No cash |
| Any delay >4 h | Free refund or rebooking |
Assistance — meals, hotel, rebooking — is owed regardless of cause. Ask at the service desk, not the gate.
If it goes wrong
Practical order of operations
- Go to the airline service desk inside the terminal — apps and hotlines are slower.
- Ask for rebooking on the next flight, in writing or as a saved picture of the new booking.
- Keep every receipt for meals and transport; claim later.
- If the delay is long, check high-speed rail from the same city (12306).
- Use Trip.com's English support if the airline has no English line.
Checklist and phrases
The last section is the one to save before you leave the hotel.
Before you leave for the airport
Ten items, in order of consequence
- Physical passport — the same one on the ticket.
- Airport code and terminal confirmed, not just the city.
- Bag within allowance; weighed at the hotel.
- Power bank has a 3C mark, in your cabin bag.
- No lighters, no aerosols over 100 ml.
- E-ticket number saved offline.
- Two hours before departure — three at a mega-hub.
- Hotel address in Chinese for the return taxi (DiDi).
- Alipay or a card for airport food and metro (Alipay, how to pay).
- Offline map of the destination airport.
Six phrases for the airport
Show the screen, or read the pinyin
Notes on these figures
Sources. CAAC rules on valid travel documents for domestic flights (foreign passport accepted); airline fare rules and baggage pages for Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, Hainan and Spring Airlines; China Eastern’s domestic voluntary refund and change rules effective August 2026; CAAC emergency notice of 28 June 2025 on power banks without a 3C mark; fuel surcharge adjustment effective 5 November 2026 (¥80 ≤800 km, ¥140 >800 km); airport authority pages for Beijing Capital, Beijing Daxing, Shanghai Hongqiao and Pudong, Chengdu Shuangliu and Tianfu, and Guangzhou Baiyun.
Fares, baggage allowances and refund tiers vary by carrier, fare class and route, and change without notice. The journey times above are modelled from published schedules plus typical buffers, not measured trips.
Companion guides on this site: WeChat Pay, Alipay for visitors, DiDi, 12306 train tickets, and shared bikes. Together they cover payment, city transport, rail and air.
Prepared November 2026. Informational only. Confirm terminal, baggage and fare rules with the airline before departure.