Landing in China: immigration, fingerprints and your first hour

✅ Updated Aug 2026

The entry process itself is straightforward, but almost everything that makes your first hour smooth has to be set up before you board. Since 20 November 2025 the arrival card is filed online, free, before you fly. You get a QR code back — screenshot it and email it to yourself, because airport wifi is not something to depend on. In practice you often will not be asked to show it at all, since the submission is already tied to your passport number, but do not skip it on that basis. At the airport, follow signs to the foreigners' queue (外国人通道). Travellers aged roughly 14 to 70 have ten fingerprints and a facial image taken. Many terminals put self-service kiosks before the counters: scan your passport, place your fingers on the reader, done in a few seconds — doing this while queuing saves time at the desk. At the counter itself you look into the camera, put your fingers on the scanner again, and hand over the passport. Budget properly for this step. At the big international airports the wait is commonly 15 to 40 minutes, and when several long-haul flights land together it can pass an hour. If you have a connecting domestic flight or a booked train, do not plan it tight. After immigration comes baggage, then customs. If you are carrying nothing that needs declaring, take the green channel and walk through. Follow the signage at your specific port — the declaration arrangements differ between airports and change from time to time. The part travellers underestimate is what happens after you walk out. You will immediately want a ride, and a ride needs mobile data and a working payment app — neither of which you can conveniently set up while standing in the arrivals hall with no internet. Activate a travel eSIM before you fly, or leave international roaming switched on for the first day, and have Alipay or WeChat Pay already installed with a card linked. Have your hotel's name and address saved in Chinese, as a screenshot, so you can show it to a driver without needing to be online at all.

1. 1

   File the arrival card online before you fly and screenshot the QR code; email it to yourself as a backup.

2. 2

   Before landing, activate a travel eSIM or leave roaming on — you need data before you can do anything else.

3. 3

   Follow signs to the foreigners' queue.

   外国人通道 · wàiguórén tōngdào

4. 4

   Use a self-service fingerprint kiosk while queuing if there is one, then at the counter: look at the camera, fingers on the scanner, passport to the officer.

5. 5

   Collect your bags and take the green channel through customs if you have nothing to declare.

6. 6

   Have your hotel name and address saved in Chinese as a screenshot so you can show a driver offline.