First announced at Forum.
Free 15 Day Visa-Free Entry to China for Australian & New Zealand Passport Holders (Save $110)
Current Expiring Date would be 31st of December 2025 (But it could be extended)
To avoid any confusion, there are plenty of websites that mention that the 15 Day Visa-Free Entry to China for Australian Passport Holders starts on 1st of July 2024 and ends 31st of December 2025.
Official Website of confirmation
@spc12go: What does wealth have to do with anything when visiting a country?
I'm not visiting a slum in china nor am i visiting a slum in taiwan lmao.
Useless comment.
You are talking out of a… Here
It’s not about what historically the geographical area is called, but it’s what the people of Taiwan wants
Why yes, and mainland China is a part of Republic of China.
There is only one China, but I would rather the Taiwanese government than the CCP. At least there is the rule of law.
@[Deactivated]: If you have read Chinese history, you should know how lucky the Chinese chose the CPC over the KMT.
@salin: The CCP way just don't suit me, despite I whinge about liberal/labour like no end. Though, my personsl political view won't change this deal, being a deal.
I am rather familiar with Chinese history, including when both governments are in power. The people did not choose the CCP, they are the uneducated crowd that basically followed.
The old days KMT failed because rule of law did not exist and the common people suffered. Country was run by various warlords - bit like Lebanon of the modern day.
@[Deactivated]: KMT is just hopeless after Chiang Kai-shek seized power. He killed more people from his party rather than communists.
At least everything the CPC promised to its citizens turns into truth. Facts speak louder here.
@salin: Don't care, really, I don't live in China. I do have a soft spot for Taiwan tho.
I get irritated at people criticing the modern day China without having experienced it (or to criticise and continue to buy Chinese goods). Equally that ones that see the CCP controlled portion of China as utopia, particular ones travelling with their Aust passport.
Good thing that Australia is free. People can freely go if they wanted to.
@[Deactivated]: I thought we were talking about Chinese history and CPC and KMT.
you brought this to Australia won't change the fact, KMT is a loser and turned itself into America's puppet.
@salin: How many ppl did mao killed? More than the war against Japan. 40-80 million due to starvation.
Tell those people they are lucky to have CCP
@salin: Taiwan upholds the Three Principles and has the government he envisioned: the presidency plus the five branches/yuans. Can't see how the party betrayed its founder.
@salin: "Lucky" is an interesting use of the word.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution#Atrocities
@dyziplen: I mean you could see the Indigenous population of most commonwealth countries were pretty lucky too right?
You should link all those aswell.
I mean Darwin seems to be thriving. /s
@TightAl: Unlike the CCP and their thought police. We here can think sh*t is pretty screwed up here as well as China. I wouldn't be describing either those who went through cultural revolution as LUCKY or those who went through the White Australia policy here as LUCKY.
@TightAl: You could say the same about how Chinese Han cleansed all the different ethnic races.
Australia is not great neither most country’s when it comes to indigenous people. At least we admit it.
What has CCP admit? Great culture revolution and excellent long March, enriched people’s life and gave China a prosperous future.
@salin: You are very fortunate to be able to praise and support authoritarian countries on the internet in Western countries without any danger, and you will not be censored
@salin: Yep sure see, the great march. What a wonderful event and great for the Chinese. They prospered so much after that.
Let’s look at Taiwan compare to China. If China is so great why do you think the Taiwanese don’t want anything to do with China.
@bchliu
Its constitution identify it as a country. The constitution of Republic of China. And it is a country called Republic of China.
If is not the same country as Peoples republic of China.
So what’s your point again?
It's the same country. But most of China is occupied by the rebel force illegally.
A few facts, Hong Kong is part of China, Macau is part of China, and Taiwan is part of China.
@[Deactivated]: It is not the same country. People’s Republic of Korea and Republic of Korea the same?
Well, that constitution also claims the land occupied by the PRC + Mongolia + Tuva.
The visa center is a disaster, so this is great news. If you needed longer than 15 days it would be quicker to fly to Hong Kong and then fly back to China and re-apply than line up at that torturous place.
Yeah, I heard you need a full itinerary for basically the entire trip when you're applying for a real visa too. Which is not at all how I personally travel. I book 1 night on arrival and figure the rest out as I go.
Don't need to fly if you are in shenzhen just walk over and back
Besides cost of a plane ticket depending where you are in China usually cost more than a visa
Yes I agree that place sucks and they share the same black face as immigration officers in China
is your friend elon musk or something?
He worked for a power company in Aus at the time, perhaps they had some special interest in buying that like the rest of our infrastructure.
Why bother engaging with people who have made up their mind? If they actually wanted to know, they could look for possible evidence of vloggers showing men in black suits follow them.
I've been to China and don't care. If they were spies and didn't want to be seen they'd wear casual clothing. It's just a theatrical intimidation tactic. "Behave yourself while you're here"
They're just normal people being told to follow foreigners, not like they're targeting specific people. I'll have lunch with them and ask them good places to shop.
You talking about it spreads the word for people to not FAFO while in China, which they'd be grateful to you for.
Dial back on the paranoia though, you'd probably love it there.
K Rudd
What about critical positive comments of the CCP
Well then you'll get enough social credits to escape death for at least another day :)
You think this visa free is a scheme to detain people from Australia haha
What a troll post. They always start with my friend. My colleague. Someone I know… unless you got personal objective proof like video evidence stop spreading hate here. There’s better reddit subs you can go spread your anti China conspiracies and whatever b.s. you cook up. The crowd on those subreddits will also be more receptive and I’m sure you can all compare each others’ friends stories of been oppressed/followed by CCP.
I personally feel real bad for the Chinese diaspora with family still on the mainland. They don't even need to be critical of that government directly, merely seen to be condoning or not arguing back loudly enough to someone that is critical is all it really takes for a phone call out of the blue from Yeye…
Has "110 Overseas" been covered up sufficiently now for you to call it bs ?
Exactly hahah,
Literally millions of execs fly into China every year for business, millions of business owners then you go on OzB and you hear a story from a friend of a friend a decade ago - Some lovestruck loser chasing a girl, yeh ok bro.
Yes, most of these trolls have never been to China and act like they are expert😂
Planning our next family trip there! Also easier more transiting via HK through land. Can’t wait for Shanghai.
Just remember to wear your pajamas in Shanghai like the locals. You'll fit right in.
早上好澳大利亚，现在我有冰激凌
This should be in the forum.
no
How easy to setup Alipay and Wechat pay?
Think it’s hard, and you really do need it
Must be hard to think, considering you haven't done it. You already assumed its hard LOL.
God the brain decay is insane.
It’s not straight forward is all I’m saying. Flog
@Charles Bakeley: If you have to think it's hard, it means you haven't actually done it.
LMAO, your life must be hard.
I recommend Alipay - ID check and add Visa/Master/AMEX
And ensure your Australian mobile roams - Alipay needs you to receive a daily SMS from your bank to reauthorise the credit card.
That's not my experience with Alipay, no SMS was needed for ING card after the initial setup. You definitely need data either via roaming or local sim on your mobile for payments.
@assailantsky: November 2023 BankWest Platinum Zero with AliPay — daily SMS needed to authorise transactions to your registered Australian number.
But that's just a general requirement these days - your credit card isn't guaranteed to work if you don't have a way to hear from the bank's risk department. Chip and pin usually fine. For any other method you might require secondary authentication. Lion Air group in Indonesia - booking a domestic flight online - you'd better be able to receive SMS.
@factor: All I'm saying is it is not a Alipay requirement, it is your bank's requirement. Last used Alipay in May 2024 in China and no issues. In my experience if using an ING debit card you won't need to verify daily with SMS.
eSim from Hong Kong might be cheaper than roaming with a SIM from Australia.
The Alipay global version on the App Store or the Chinese version, can I do that from here or in China? Thanks.
Global version is better as it has lots of useful functions for visitors. You should setup before you arrive in China.
I think they can help you set up Alipay at the airport when you land and subscribe a local number.
Wechat pay can be done here by linking it to a credit card. I use Wise since there's no real service fees and can control the amount of money exchanged into Chinese Yuan. You can connect Wechat pay to Wise to get best method of payment without subscribing to a local mobile number there (can use Aus numbers).
Never ever get Chinese local number!! If you roam your Oz number or use a Hongkong number, you can access Google FB YT whatsapp etc, but Chinese local number … great, enjoy your holiday behind the greate fxking fire wall
Not hard, but the app experience itself is not entirely smooth.
When I was using it late last year, most of the time my QR code would not load or took forever to. When it finally loaded, and the scanner tried to scan, there was no guarantee the payment would process successfully.
Alipay is pretty easy, can setup app and your card before you go. Need to scan passport and face on phone camera for ID. Only get charged 3% fee for purchases over ¥200 (~$40) plus whatever international fee your card has (3% for me). Don't bother with Wechat pay, and haven't used cash once but good to have some as backup.
You can get by with WeChat Pay and linking a card.
I know I will be down voted for this, but you would have to pay me to go to that communist dystopia.
It's not too bad. Just need to keep your mouth shut in public - which most Aussies can't do and get into all sort of trouble in various parts of Asia.
Anything using the Hong Kong anthem as ring tone is inviting trouble upon themselves. No difference to insulting the king whilst in Thailand.
Either don't go, or do as Romans do.
using the Hong Kong anthem as ring tone
No one cares as long as you play it in prolonged period :/
Long live Playboy Thai King
Should I go as
Roman 1: someone that grew up in the cultural revolution, talk loud, spit everywhere and watching old school propaganda movies on the high speed rail on speaker not giving a stuff
or
Roman 2: Dancing granny
How strict is insulting the king in Thailand really though?
I hung out with a few Thai people aged 20-30 when I was there and they absolutely hated the government and royal family. One told me about how the go and protest around Khaosan Road at the monument on the roundabout and all they do is turn the lights off to drive them away.
I hear the same thing about speaking poorly about the Malaysian royal family, but then again, it doesn't seem to be a real thing to be concerned about.
Same as what's reported in China. I guess some idiots will get themselves into trouble whilst most will be ok.
No one is forcing others to go, it's optional.
Low tax bracket mentality.
Ouch! lol
China haven't been communist for a long long time. It's more a state capitalism, when it's rule of $$$$, but $$$$ eventually end up in the hands of the state. Minus the cut for all the people along the way, some take a bigger cut than others.
When Deng Xiaoping introduced globalisation that was the end
is this a one way trip to china ??
Don't think they want someone like you there
Can't wait for my organs to be harvested by CCP
Do a bottle of tequila and a few packets of smokes a day, they will have no use for the organs.
Make sure you join the Falong Cult first or your organs won't be of any value apparently.
What yaer is it now? 1980?
Keep spreading your misinformation without any basis or facts
You'll be OK ……. big, fat asses aren't really a thing in China.
4 US men were stabbed and 2 Japanese stabbed within 2 weeks, targeted attack. They train their ppl hate foreigners, esp from Jap US Oz.
This is true, they send international students to Australia to stab us.
Lol. that's the "violence score" every 1/2 hour in USA.
That is what really just happend, I dont understand why so many negs
That is really scary indeed!!!
May I suggest that you visit the beautiful country called the USA where there are on average 57 homicides everyday in 2022 with a tourist visa costing $400 and a $1200+ plane ticket for a holiday?
If you are feeling lucky, go south and visit Mexico while you there.
All Australian should say Thank you China for paying our Centrelink ans Medicare.
We could already visit the Republic of China free for three months.
I’m just keen to see how many ways the people from PRC find to exploit the multi visit 5 year visas they can get now to make money.
@ProlapsedHeinous: I would like to note that Mainland China has the highest average vegetable consumption globally