How applying for a China tourist visa in 2023 can be very frustrating – from forms and photos to in-person appointments

When applying for a tourist visa to join a motorbike tour of mainland China, one traveller was made to jump through a series of time-consuming hoops

His takeaway is that China doesn’t want foreigners venturing outside its cities and that independent travel in the country’s remote parts is de facto prohibited

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Applying for a China tourist visa in 2023 is no walk in the park — be prepared for lengthy forms, photo issues and in-person appointments. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 4:15pm, 27 Nov 2023Updated: 4:21pm, 27 Nov 2023

In 2019, a sales director of an internationally branded hotel in Bali, Indonesia, was asked by her boss to travel to Shanghai to meet with travel agents. It took her four attempts to get a visa.

“My application was rejected twice,” says the sales director, who asked for her name be withheld as she is not authorised to speak with the press.

“The first time was because of my photo – it wasn’t the exact size they asked for. The second and third times were because of tiny mistakes in my paperwork. I don’t know why they didn’t just check everything the first time instead of coming back to me one by one with the problems?”

In October, I got a taste of her frustration when I applied for a tourist visa to join a motorbike tour of mainland China, including Tibet.

A shepherd on a motorbike rides along the shore of Lake Gomang in Tibet, China. Photo: Shutterstock

Beijing has just announced that holders of passports from Malaysia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain will be eligible for 15-day visa-free entry from December 1, but that wouldn’t have helped me, even if the relaxation had been brought in a few weeks earlier.

The drama began with the application form itself, which had to be submitted online through the China Visa Application Service Centre portal.