How to apply for a Chinese visa without knowing one's itinerary in advance?

Upvote:1

There are literally billions of people in China. No one is tracking you around. Make a best guess of where you will be when, put that down. They aren't going to check, they aren't going to ask you about it.

Upvote:1

I have done multiple trips in which we ended up visiting cities that weren't listed on the visa application and nobody has said a thing about it or given us trouble with future visas.

Note, however, that we have a very long record of visiting and not getting in trouble and have never submitted hotel bookings--it's always simply the address of the relative we are staying with. (Note that if you stay with someone rather than in a hotel the police registration is your job--you need to go to the local police station and register where you are staying and for how long. In theory this needs the resident along also but in Shanghai we have done it multiple times without them. When you stay in a hotel the hotel does this for you--which means that if you are far off the beaten track you might find hotels won't allow you to stay. If they're not set up to do this registration they can't legally allow a foreigner to stay.)

Upvote:3

Like others have said, even if you change your plans not only will no one notice, but even if they did, it's perfectly normal to change your plans half-way during a trip, there are no rules against it. They ask for itineraries to see if you have some vague purpose to your visit, not because those are the only things you'll be allowed to do.

I would suggest writing up a casual itinerary saying when you'll be landing, where you're going after that (I would recommend booking a hotel to stay in after you've landed, this is something you should definitely show in my opinion, since you aren't going to the parents' place straight away. Book one, and if you find a cheaper one just cancel the initial booking and book the cheaper one. That's not fraudulent at all, it's well within your rights) and dot a few 'shopping' and 'sight-seeing' activities in there. You don't have to stick to it strictly, and you can stay wherever you want.

Upvote:3

All of your questions regarding hotel bookings have already been covered here:

and in the answer by @JoelDamien.

Regarding the visa type to apply for, note that in any case you will apply for a L tourist visa. As you note for purpose of trip you can either tick "tourism" or "short term visit to Chinese citizen".

  • For the tourism type you need to provide bookings and an itinerary as pointed out above
  • while for the visit type you need an invitation letter, in your case from your girlfriends parents.

I think in your case both would be justified and it depends mostly on what is more convenient for you. Do you know your girlfriends parents and are you comfortable asking them for the invitation letter (taking into account Chinese standards here)? Or can you easily put together a provisional itinerary in the meantime? It is mostly your judgement call and depends on whether you will actually mostly be visiting or travelling.

Also see this somewhat related post.

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