How to get Visa free entry into China or Russia

In order to enter Russian or Chinese you are required to obtain a travel visa in advance before entry. You’re looking at paying a whopping £30-60 depending on how fast you need it, which agency you go with and what type of visa you require.

However, there is a travel hack that I can tell you about to avoid having to get a visa all together.

Here is how you can enter Russia or China for a visa free entry trip. Its purely legal and I’ve done it myself:

Russia

If you Travel with an arranged Tour company by boat from Helsinki, Finland, you Don’t need to obtain a visa to enter Russia for a few days.

This is what I did back in 2011 with a very affordable student company called Time Travels.

I had a great desire to visit St Petersburg, Russia when studying in Finland and this route was a no brainer.

When you take into account the cost of a visa, then compare it to the tour package that was offered at a student friendly price I was happy to pay it.

Travelling on a visa free entry trip to Russia saved me and my friends a lot of money and we got to experience Russia, it was a win win!

It’s worth checking out Time Travel as you get put with a group of International students and everything is all sorted for you from start to finish.

The price was what I would have paid myself if I was to go alone, so it was an easy choice for me to make and I ended up going with a lot of my exchange friends due to the price, it was totally worth it.

(As you can see the stamp was my proof of entry into Russia without a visa, just need to take the boat from Finland, simple!)

Can you wait for the World Cup 2018 in Russia to visit? It’s been announced that during the world cup you won’t need a visa to enter Russia to go to the world cup, super!

But until then you can still visit St Petersburg by boat via Finland, with a tour guide to stay in the city for a few days. Have a great trip!

China

In 2013 China announced that as a UK citizen you can obtain a 72 hour transit visa from either Beijing or Shanghai Airport.

The Catch? You must have a third flight take off within 72 hours time, this means that you could be flying back to your home destination or onwards out of China. You can not travel overland you must have your next destination, booked ready for departure.

This is extremely tempting if you want to break up a flight or use a Chinese airline to fly to Asia with a stop off in China. Chinese airlines are rather affordable and with an added bonus of a visa free trip to China this can make a wonderful money saving addition to your trip.

Next time you’re flying to Asia you can now take into consideration Chinese airlines flying via these airports.

Final Tips

In Russia you will travel with a tour operator, they have been doing this visa process for years, you will have support at the boat terminal to help you with the no visa process, so nothing to worry about with regards to the Russian visa situation, just turn up with the tour company and everything will be sorted for you. The Finnish Passport control is aware of this requirement and will not question why you don’t have a visa for Russia.

The China transit visa is a little more tricky, its a new scheme and airlines in Europe might not yet be aware of it as they are always asking to see your visa before boarding. Stay strong and always state the 72 hour no-visa, transit does exist and they will finally allow you to board, for this reason it’s best to arrive at the airport early as you might have some talking to do. The check in desk will just have to call around until finally someone who is aware of this scheme will come along and give you the all clear, it just may take some time to get the go ahead. Once you’re in China you will have no problems at all as they are fully aware of the 72 hour transit visa.

There you go, fun, awesome visa free travels, happy days! Enjoy your next trip!