Traveling to Shanghai Disneyland

You’ve seen the pictures, watched the videos, and seen the reports. So how can you see Shanghai Disneyland for yourself? Honestly, it may not be as complicated as you might think — although there are some things you should definitely be aware of.To get more news aboutShanghai scenic spots, you can visit shine news official website.

Having just returned from the other side of the world, I am now prepared to offer my Shanghai Disneyland travel guide based on my experiences visiting the parks, the city, and more:

In a previous article I wrote about planning my Shanghai trip, I mentioned that American passport holders are required to obtain a visa before visiting China. While this is mostly true — and is 100% true if you are traveling from America to Shanghai and directly back to America — there are exceptions that I deemed too complicated to speak on with authority at the time. However, now that I’ve experienced them first hand, I feel I’m ready to properly explain the rules and what you might encounter if you try to use one of these programs.

Thanks to a rule enacted just earlier this year, Americans and residents of other select countries may enjoy up to 144 hours in the districts of Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang if you meet the following criteria:

You are arriving from a country outside of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
You hold a confirmed ticket onward to a third country (not the country you came from) less than 144 hours from the time of your arrival.
You do not leave the designated districts or connect to other cities within PRC.
For the purposes of this rule, Hong Kong counts as a separate country. That means that if (like me) you were to visit Hong Kong Disneyland before or after your trip to PRC and Shanghai Disneyland, you may qualify for this exemption.

Say for example you are flying out of LAX and returning to LAX but visiting both Hong Kong (HKG) and Shanghai (PVG) along the way. In this case, your itinerary that goes LAX > HKG > PVG > LAX would be compliant as long as you didn’t spend more than 144 hours in Shanghai. Additionally, the amount of time you spend in any country other than PRC is irrelevant. So, say your flight from LAX goes to Tokyo (NRT) where you have a one-hour layover before taking another flight from NRT to PVG — in this case, you can still qualify for the 144-hour exception as you would be coming to PRC from Japan before departing for the United States. Voila!
Admittedly, this can get quite complicated. Worse yet, it seems that many airline employees are not familiar with all of these rules and may give you trouble when you try to board your flight. To combat this, I recommend reviewing this thread on the FlyerTalk message board that gives you all of this info you’ll need. In my case, I needed the gate agent to contact a supervisor who could walk her through how to enter our exception in the computer and allow us to board. (Note: most airlines will need to approve your passport and visa at the start of your itinerary which for us was Atlanta. For smaller airports, it may be an even bigger issue as they are probably less accustomed to having international travelers.)

Be advised that at every step of the way it took extra time for us to explain that we were taking advantage of the 144-hour exception. Even when people are aware of the rules, it does take a while to enter all of your information, confirm your ongoing flights, etc. You can assist with the process by having all of your information printed and ready to show them including all of your flight confirmations (make sure it shows a ticket number in addition to your confirmation number), hotel bookings for Shanghai, and maybe even the TIMATIC print out from the aforementioned FlyerTalk thread. You’ll also want to hold on to your boarding passes even after your flight is completed so that you can show immigration officers where you’re arriving from. All of this documentation came in handy when we were making our way across the globe.

Posted by: freeamfva at 02:43 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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