In order for customs officials to allow you to leave the terminal where our guide meet you, there are several requirements to note:

1. You need at least 12 hours between arrival and departure times due to the time between ports and time to obtain a transit visa. (If you already have a Chinese visa, you’ll save a bit of time when you arrive, but you’ll still need 12 hours between flights.)
2. You must stay within the designated Shanghai Administration area during your stay, and stay no longer than 144 hours. When touring with us, this is no problem since we will not take you out of this zone and be very aware of your time constraints.
3. You must obtain a transit visa (see next tab)

Here are the general steps and rules for getting a transit visa when traveling through either Shanghai or Beijing. 

1. When entering an airport or a cruise terminal, go to the special immigration area for 24 to 144-hour transit visas. (There is no fee for a transit visa.)
2. You must provide your flight or cruise tickets that show you are going on to a third country. For example, you are coming to PVG from America (or one of the 51 supported countries) and then continuing to travel to another country, such as Singapore.
3. You will likely need to pick up get your luggage, and re-check your luggage when returning to your departing terminal. Please check with your airline when checking in. (If you book a layover tour with us, we’ll keep your luggage safe while your tour.)
4. 1. To get the official transit visa information, here is a link to learn more: 
   http://cy.chineseembassy.org/eng/lsqw/t1567073.htm
   

We have had several times when visitors were denied transit visas. We’ll continue adding to this list as we learn more! 

1. If you use the same airline (such as United) to travel to PVG as well as to fly to your next destination, you may have a problem getting a transit visa since your luggage will not pass through security at PVG and they want you to stay with your luggage. One way to get around this is to check your luggage ONLY to Shanghai, retrieve it, and then recheck it after your tour. 
2. If your passport expires within 6 months of entering China.​
3. If you have had any problems in the past such as arrest record or other previous issue.
4. If your layover is less than 12 hours (and we just saw a customs official require 24 hour layover!) (See the important note to the left for our cancellation policy.) 
5. Even when following the guidelines, some travelers have been denied visas! This seems to be at the whim of the customs official if they are having a bad day. 

To reserve our guide/driver, we ask for 50% deposit. Unfortunately, if you’re delayed and can’t make the tour for any reason, if we can’t get advance notice of 24 hours, we won’t be able to return your deposit since we have committed the guide and driver for the day and this helps partially compensate them. 
Even if you meet the requirements, some of the possible reasons you may not get a transit visa or are not able to make your tour: 

1. Your flight is significantly delayed or canceled.
2. A customs official decides that your layover is not long enough (12 hours is the usual minimum layover policy, but we’ve seen customs official require up to 24 hours based on their own opinion.) Note that it helps to show your itinerary, ask very nicely, or even beg (yes,, we’ve seen begging work.)  All of this helps, but is no guarantee. 
3. Any other reason the customs official does not think you should have a transit visa. 
4. If you already paid in full, and you can’t make your tour, we’ll immediately refund you 50% of the fee. We’ll also give you credit for 25% off any future tours with us to make your next visit a little easier. 

We know this can be confusing! Especially since the policy changes often and sometimes without notice or at the whim of the officials. Just Contact Us and we’re happy to answer any questions.