Arriving in China: The Arrival Card, Immigration and Customs

The hour between the plane door and the arrivals hall follows the same script at every Chinese airport: arrival card, immigration counter, baggage, customs channel. None of it is hard, and most of it can be prepared before you board — the arrival card, the step travelers stress over most, has been fillable online since late 2025. Here's the walk-through, in the order you'll actually experience it, plus what not to have in your suitcase when you reach the last step.

The arrival card: fill it before you fly

Every foreign visitor files an arrival card, and the modern way is to do it before the trip. Since November 2025, you can complete it online through the National Immigration Administration's website, the "NIA 12367" app, WeChat or Alipay mini-programs, or by scanning the filling code — the official form lives at s.nia.gov.cn/ArrivalCardFillingPC and filing is completely free. That "free" matters: fake lookalike sites exist that charge for the same form, so type the address from an official source rather than clicking an ad (the rollout was announced by Chinese missions abroad — official notice, in Chinese).

Didn't get to it before landing? No real penalty — you'll find QR codes to scan and smart kiosks in the immigration hall, and paper cards still exist as the final fallback. Made a mistake in the online form? File it again through the same channel — it's the submission that reaches the border system that counts, and the airport kiosks let you redo it on the spot.

A few categories skip the card entirely — among them holders of Chinese permanent residence, group-visa entries, cruise passengers returning with their ship, and transit passengers staying inside the port area under 24 hours. If you're a regular tourist, assume you're filing.

At the immigration counter

Queues split into foreigner and Chinese-passport lanes — follow the overhead signs, and if you're entering under the 240-hour transit policy, look for its dedicated lane. At the counter: passport, a glance at your arrival card record, usually fingerprints — Chinese law provides for collecting biometric data from entry-exit travelers — and sometimes a few questions. The questions are what they look like: where are you coming from, why are you here, where will you stay. Officers verify that your story matches your entry basis and can turn away travelers whose stated purpose doesn't fit, so the official advice is to keep supporting material — hotel bookings, return flight, an invitation if you have one — easy to pull up. Answer plainly; this is pattern-matching, not an interrogation.

One obligation starts ticking as soon as you're through: where you sleep gets registered. Hotels do it automatically at check-in, but if you're staying in a private home or rental, you or your host must register with the local police station within 24 hours.

Customs: picking the right channel

After baggage claim comes the channel choice: green for nothing to declare, red if you're carrying anything that needs declaring. Two rules cover most tourists. Health first: the health declaration form was scrapped back in 2023 — you only approach customs health staff if you actually have symptoms of infectious illness, like fever or vomiting, or a diagnosed condition. Money second, and the two rules work differently: the yuan you may carry across the border is capped at 20,000 per person per crossing, while foreign cash is allowed in but has to be declared in writing at the red channel once it is worth more than 5,000 US dollars — the pair most likely to catch out cash-heavy travelers. Duty-free allowances for alcohol and tobacco exist too; the current numbers are posted at the channel entrance, so check the signage if you're carrying either in quantity.

What not to have in the suitcase

China's prohibited-items list for animal and plant products is stricter than most arrivals expect, and it's where well-meaning gifts get confiscated:

• Meat in any form — raw, cooked, cured, vacuum-packed, including organ products. The salami and jerky in your bag count.
• Fresh fruit and vegetables — the apple from the plane included.
• Dairy and eggs — milk products of animal origin and egg products.
• Living things and what grows them — cut flowers, seeds and seedlings, soil. Pets are the one exception: one dog or cat per person, with quarantine certificate and vaccination proof.

Prescription medication is a different category: medicines for your own use, in reasonable quantities, are everyday luggage — keep them in original packaging, bring the prescription or a doctor's note for anything unusual, and declare at the red channel if you're carrying large amounts or anything containing controlled substances. When in doubt, declaring costs minutes; not declaring can cost the medication. Drones and professional camera gear sit in a regulatory gray zone that shifts — check current rules for your destination city before packing one.

Through the doors: your first hour

Once you're out, three errands set up the whole trip: connectivity, money, transport. Sort a local eSIM or SIM with our SIM and eSIM guide, decide how much paper money you actually need with the cash question, and get mobile payments working with the Alipay setup guide. And one clock worth knowing about: if you entered under a visa-free policy, your stay is counted from midnight after your arrival day — the arrival evening is free.

The landing checklist

• Arrival card filed online before departure — on the official, free site.
• Passport and bookings easy to reach for the counter questions.
• No meat, fruit, dairy or seeds in the bag; yuan within the 20,000 cap, and foreign cash either under 5,000 dollars or declared.
• Staying somewhere that isn't a hotel? Police registration within the first day.

Before any of this matters, make sure your entry route itself is settled — visa, visa-free or transit — in our nationality lookup.

Last updated: August 2026