Visa-Free at the Canton Fair and Staying On for Factory Visits: When the 30-Day and 240-Hour Clocks End, the Stay Permit, and What an Overstay Costs

Checked on 23 October 2026. We are an interpreting and translation company in Guangzhou (Guangzhou GuanRi Translation Service Co., Ltd.). We are not a law firm, not an immigration agency, not a government office and not the organizer of the Canton Fair. The service this article ends up recommending, interpreters for factory visits after the fair, is one we sell ourselves. This is not legal advice. Every rule below comes from an official text linked in the sources; whether a stay permit is issued, and how an overstay is dealt with, is decided by the public security exit-entry offices and the border inspection authorities, not by us. Where a date in this article is our own arithmetic rather than an official example, we say so.

Many buyers at the 140th Canton Fair came in without a visa: either under China's 30-day unilateral visa-free policy or under the 240-hour visa-free transit policy. The second phase runs from 23 to 27 October and the third from 31 October to 4 November. A common plan is to stay on after the fair and visit the factories met at the booths. This article answers three questions for that plan: when your clock actually ends, where you may travel while it runs, and what the official texts say about staying longer or about having already stayed too long.

1. Which line is yours

2. Two clocks, counted from the day after you enter

The National Immigration Administration's English list of the 30-day unilateral visa-free countries, compiled as of 17 February 2026, ends with two sentences:

Nationals of the above countries holding ordinary passports may enter China visa-free for business, tourism, visits to relatives and friends, exchange visits, or transit, for stays of up to 30 days. The duration of stay is calculated from 00:00 on the day following the date of entry.

The Chinese embassies' questions-and-answers on the same policy (in Chinese; the version updated on 25 May 2026) say the same in one sentence and add that the 30 days are consecutive calendar days.

According to the same questions-and-answers, the policy covers 50 countries. For Brunei it has no end date, for Russia it runs until 31 December 2027, and for the other 48 countries until 31 December 2026. They are: Brunei, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Australia, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Slovenia, Slovakia, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, the Republic of Korea, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Russia, Sweden, Canada and the United Kingdom. The same answers say that people coming to China for exhibitions and staying no longer than 30 days are covered.

The 240-hour transit clock starts the same way. The guide published on 25 December 2024 on the website of the Guangzhou Airport Economic Zone Administrative Committee, which credits Baiyun Airport as its source, gives an example that starts at Baiyun. The page is bilingual; its English text has three sentences and the Chinese two, because the English makes the departure clause a sentence of its own:

The stay period begins at 0:00 on the next day of entry. For instance, if a passenger arrives in China from Guangzhou Baiyun Airport on January 1, 2025, the stay period is counted from 00:00 on January 2, 2025, and he can stay for a maximum of 10 days. When departing from China, he can exit via any port applicable to the 240-hour visa-free transit policy approved by The State Council before 24:00 on January 11.

On 20 August 2026 the National Immigration Administration added Kyrgyzstan and Viet Nam, bringing the 240-hour policy to 57 countries; it now applies at 65 ports in 24 provinces. Some countries are on both lists (the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany, for example); some are on the 240-hour list only (the United States, Mexico and Indonesia, for example). The 2024 guide says that nationals of countries on both lists may be admitted under the mutual visa-exemption agreement or the unilateral visa-free policy that applies to them (its own list of such countries dates from 2024). Which one you were admitted under was decided by the border officer at entry; if you are not sure, ask +86 12367, the National Immigration Administration's 24-hour line (Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Russian, Japanese and Korean, according to the Chinese Embassy in Canada). For the 30-day policy, the embassies' questions-and-answers say children are under the same conditions as adults; count each traveller's days from their own entry.

Here are the dates for the fair, worked out by us with the two rules above. "Days after the fair" counts from the day after the phase closes.

Our arithmetic follows the guide's example: entry on 1 January, day one is 2 January, departure by 24:00 on 11 January. Under the 240-hour policy, a phase 3 buyer has about four or five days after the fair, not two weeks. If the factories you want to see are in two or three provinces, that is tight. On your last day, leave enough time to clear exit border control before 24:00; if your flight leaves around midnight, ask +86 12367 how it is counted.

3. Where the 240-hour policy lets you go

The 30-day policy does not limit you to an area. The 240-hour policy does. According to the 25 December 2024 guide, and the table on the National Immigration Administration's English policy page as updated on 20 August 2026, the permitted area covers 24 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian and Shanghai are covered as whole provinces, and so are most others. Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Tibet (Xizang), Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang are not covered. Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan and Yunnan are covered only in named cities; before going to a factory there, check the current list on the National Immigration Administration's page or with +86 12367. In our directory of the 26,270 exhibitors of the 139th fair, 15,300 (58.2%) are registered in those five whole provinces, 916 (3.5%) in the seven provinces the policy does not cover and 1,717 (6.5%) in the six covered only in part. These figures come from our data, by the province in each company's registration, not from an official source; a factory can also be somewhere other than its registered address. The same NIA table allows travel between provinces; the sentence under it reads (the central government website's release of 17 December 2024 says the same in Chinese):

Visa-free transit travelers can make cross-province visits in the permitted areas in the 24 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) for no more than 240 hours.

Two more conditions come from the 2024 guide. You must be travelling to a third country or region, so the place you fly on to must be different from the place you came from. And you leave through one of the policy's ports; for Guangdong, the NIA table lists ten ports, including Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport and the Guangzhou Pazhou Ferry Terminal, and adds that exits are available at all open ports across the province. Going outside the permitted area is itself one of the forms of illegal residence listed in the regulations (section 5).

4. Staying longer: the stay permit

The Exit and Entry Administration Law, Article 34, first paragraph (one sentence; official English from the National Immigration Administration):

Where visa-exempt foreigners need to stay in China longer than the visa-free period, or foreign seamen and their accompanying family members need to leave the cities where the ports are located, or under other circumstances in which foreigners’ stay permits should be applied for, they shall apply for such permits in accordance with relevant regulations.

The second paragraph of the same article caps a stay permit at 180 days. The Chinese embassies' questions-and-answers say who should use it, in two sentences (our translation):

A foreigner who plans to stay or reside in China for more than 30 days should obtain, in advance, a visa matching the purpose of the trip at a Chinese embassy or consulate abroad. A foreigner who entered under the visa-free policy and, for a reasonable and legitimate reason, needs to stay on in China should apply to a public security exit-entry office for a stay permit.

The National Immigration Administration's service guide for stay permits (4 March 2019) gives the case of a visa-free entrant as item 1 of its list of supporting materials. The item is one sentence ending in a semicolon (our translation):

Where a foreigner who entered without a visa needs, for reasons other than diplomatic or official ones, to stay on beyond the visa-free period, supporting documents shall be submitted in accordance with the relevant rules, and a stay permit for a corresponding period may be issued;

Four things follow from these texts.

"May", not "shall". The guide says a stay permit "may be issued". Neither text lists which reasons count as "reasonable and legitimate", and we do not guess whether visiting more factories after the fair is one of them. Under Article 21 of the regulations a stay permit is not issued in four situations, the first being that the applicant cannot provide the materials as required. Ask +86 12367 before you rely on it.

For the 240-hour policy the wording is narrower. The 2024 Guangzhou guide speaks of force majeure. Its English text has two sentences, as does the Chinese:

If it is necessary to stay in the visa-free stay area for more than 240 hours due to force majeure or for any other urgent reasons, passengers shall apply to the Exit and Entry Administration department of the local public security organ at or above the county level for the corresponding stay and residence permit. If passengers go beyond the restricted area or overstay without permission, they shall bear the corresponding legal responsibility and be punished for illegal residence, and the future applications for entry and exit documents such as Chinese visas may be affected.

The English adds "or for any other urgent reasons"; the Chinese says only "force majeure and similar reasons", which is narrower. We go by the Chinese text. The guide does not list commercial reasons, and whether any reason qualifies is for the exit-entry office; plan the factory visits inside the 10 days.

Apply before the last day. Article 34 does not say how many days in advance. Under Article 13 of the regulations, the office issues a receipt of acceptance valid for up to 7 days and decides within that time; Article 36 says these periods are counted in working days, excluding public holidays. The National Immigration Administration's guide writes "7 working days" for the receipt, and the Guangzhou checklist gives 7 working days as its processing time. Article 13, third paragraph, says (one sentence, official English from the National Immigration Administration):

During the period of time when the applicant’s passport or other international travel documents are retained for processing his or her application for a visa or permit, the applicant may stay in China legally on the strength of the receipt of acceptance.

The office may keep your passport while it decides; during that time the receipt is what lets you stay. The National Immigration Administration's guide also says the permit is collected in person at the office with the receipt. If your flight or your factory visits fall inside that period, ask when you apply.

What Guangzhou asks for. The Guangzhou Public Security Bureau's checklist for stay permits (an undated Word file on its exit-entry page) lists the originals and copies of your valid passport (or other international travel document) and visa, the visa and certificate application form, one Guangdong visa photo with its photo check receipt, the valid Guangzhou foreigner accommodation registration form, and for visa-free entrants "supporting material related to the reason for the stay" (our translation). Under "receiving body" it names the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau's exit-entry detachment and district-level offices entrusted by the "Exit and Entry Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security". The file is undated, so check the requirements by phone before you go. If you are staying with a friend rather than in a hotel, you or your host must register with the local police within 24 hours of arrival (see our article on accommodation registration). The National Immigration Administration's guide ends with one sentence about foreign-language papers (our translation):

The relevant foreign-language supporting documents shall be translated into Chinese.

The guide does not say who must translate them or whether the translation needs a seal; ask the office.

In principle you apply in person. Article 19 of the regulations allows the inviting entity or individual, a relative or a specialized service agency to apply for you in three situations; our article on who can apply on your behalf goes through them. The Guangzhou Public Security Bureau's foreigner exit-entry reception hall is at 155 Jiefang South Road, Yuexiu District; enquiries on +86 12367. The published hours are Monday to Friday 9:00–12:00 and 13:00–17:00, with urgent cases handled on Saturdays at the same times. The district service halls are listed on the bureau's exit-entry page. Hours and requirements change, so call +86 12367 before you go.

If you came on a short-stay visa rather than visa-free, Article 29 of the law applies instead: an extension is applied for at least 7 days before the stay printed on the visa ends, and the extensions together may not be longer than the stay originally printed on the visa.

5. If your last day has passed, or you have left the permitted area

The regulations, Article 25, list four forms of illegal residence; the second and third are the ones that matter here (official English from the National Immigration Administration):

In one of the following circumstances, a foreigner shall be deemed to be residing in China illegally: … (2) The applicant overstays the visa-free period and fails to obtain a stay permit or residence permit; (3) The activities of the applicant go beyond the restricted area of stay or residence; or

The penalty is in Article 78, first paragraph, of the law (one sentence):

Foreigners who reside in China illegally shall be given a warning; where circumstances are serious, they shall be imposed with a fine of RMB 500 yuan per day, with a cap of RMB 10,000 yuan in total, or be detained for not less than five days but not more than 15 days.

Article 62 lists illegal residence among the cases in which a foreigner "may be repatriated", and its last paragraph adds (one sentence):

Repatriated persons shall not be allowed to enter China for one to five years, calculating from the date of repatriation.

The 2024 Guangzhou guide quoted in section 4 also says, in its Chinese text, that going beyond the restricted area or overstaying is punished as illegal residence and affects future applications for Chinese visas (its English text says "may be affected"). The embassies' questions-and-answers touch on this in their answer about leaving China after losing a passport; the second paragraph of that answer is two sentences (our translation):

Where there is a violation that falls under the jurisdiction of the border inspection authorities, such as staying beyond the visa-free period, the Chinese border inspection authorities will deal with it according to law and regulations. For other violations beyond the jurisdiction of the border inspection authorities, the person concerned should first be dealt with by the public security exit-entry administration or another competent authority, and then go through exit formalities at the border inspection authorities with the relevant supporting documents.

What to do: before you go to the airport, call +86 12367 and ask whether your case is handled by border inspection at departure or by an exit-entry office first, and what to bring. Do not plan to fix it at the gate with minutes to spare. Whether your case is "serious" is decided by the authorities, not by us. If you want legal advice, contact a practising lawyer at the same time, but do not delay going to the authorities while you look for one.

6. What visa-free entry does not cover

The embassies' questions-and-answers say that exhibitions are covered, as quoted in section 2, and then draw the line in one sentence (our translation):

People coming to China to work, study, report as journalists and the like are not covered by the visa-free policy.

The purposes listed for the 30-day policy are business, tourism, visits to relatives and friends, exchange visits and transit; the 240-hour texts list business too. Neither says whether a buyer's visit to a factory counts as "business", and the questions-and-answers add that visitors must not engage in activities that do not match the purpose of entry. We sell interpreting for exactly these visits, so we are not the ones to answer this; if it matters for your trip, ask +86 12367. If you are a foreign exhibitor's employee or are paid by a Chinese company, whether that is "work" is also for the authorities.

7. Where we come in

What we sell is interpreting, not immigration services. Our FAQ page lists escort and consecutive interpreting for business meetings and factory tours from ¥200 per hour or ¥800 per full day, depending on language pair and subject. The same page says a VAT special invoice adds 6% to the quote and a general invoice 3%, and that new clients typically pay a 30–50% deposit. It also says common pairs (Chinese with English, Japanese or Korean) can usually be scheduled 1–2 weeks ahead and rare pairs should be booked 4–8 weeks ahead. On the 240-hour policy, the examples in section 2 leave a phase 2 buyer three to five days after the fair and a phase 3 buyer four or five, which is less than either lead time, so write to us as soon as you know the dates. We are based in Guangzhou; if your factories are in another province, agree the interpreter's travel and accommodation in the quote before you book.

How to plan the visits themselves, city by city, is in our articles on Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen and Yiwu. If you need to go to an exit-entry office, you can book an interpreter to go with you; ask us for a quote and availability; whether the interpreter may come up to the counter is decided by the office on the spot. If the office asks for your foreign-language papers in Chinese, we translate them; ask the office first what kind of translation it accepts.

Interpreter profiles are in the interpreter directory. To ask about dates, write to us on WhatsApp / WeChat (WhatsApp +86 139 2416 6640, WeChat Saralee93) or through the contact page.

Sources

1. National Immigration Administration, List of Countries Covered by Unilateral Visa Exemption Policies (as of 17 February 2026): https://en.nia.gov.cn/n147418/n147463/c183390/content.html
2. Chinese Embassy in Sweden, questions and answers on the unilateral visa-free policy, updated 25 May 2026 (in Chinese): https://se.china-embassy.gov.cn/lstz/202511/t20251110_11750027.htm
3. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, notice of 3 November 2025 extending the unilateral visa-free policy (in Chinese): https://www.mfa.gov.cn/wjbzwfwpt/kzx/tzgg/202511/t20251103_11746081.html
4. National Immigration Administration, announcement of 20 August 2026 adding Kyrgyzstan and Viet Nam to the 240-hour policy (in Chinese): https://www.nia.gov.cn/n741440/n741542/c1796294/content.html; English policy page on visa-free transit, with the table of ports and permitted areas (read 23 October 2026): https://en.nia.gov.cn/n147418/n147463/c183412/content.html; Chinese Embassy in Canada, on the 24-hour line +86 12367: https://ca.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng/lsyw/VisaFree/VisaFreeTransit/202506/t20250609_11643307.htm
5. Central government website, news release of 17 December 2024 on that day's National Immigration Administration announcement relaxing the visa-free transit policy (in Chinese): https://www.gov.cn/lianbo/bumen/202412/content_6993129.htm
6. Guangzhou Airport Economic Zone Administrative Committee, bilingual guide to the 240-hour policy, 25 December 2024, source credited to Baiyun Airport: http://kgw.gz.gov.cn/xwzx/mtjj/content/post_10043543.html
7. Exit and Entry Administration Law, official English (Articles 29, 34, 62 and 78): https://en.nia.gov.cn/n147418/n147458/c155978/content.html; Chinese text: https://www.nia.gov.cn/n741440/n741547/c1013311/content.html
8. Regulations on the Administration of the Entry and Exit of Foreigners, official English, 2013 text (Articles 13, 19, 21, 25 and 36): https://en.nia.gov.cn/n147418/n147458/c155970/content.html; the 2025 amendment, which leaves these five articles unchanged, as carried by the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau (in Chinese): https://gaj.gz.gov.cn/zwfw/ywtd/crjimmigration/crjzx/content/post_10409663.html
9. National Immigration Administration, service guide for issuing, renewing and reissuing stay permits, 4 March 2019 (in Chinese): https://www.nia.gov.cn/n741445/n741604/n1787224/n1795789/c1792656/content.html
10. Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, exit-entry service points and guides, including the stay permit checklist (in Chinese): https://gaj.gz.gov.cn/zwfw/ywtd/crjimmigration/crjzx/content/post_9339149.html
11. Translation China, FAQ page (interpreting rates and booking lead times, read 23 October 2026): https://www.translationchina.com/m/en/faq/
12. Canton Fair, 2026 Attendance Guide for Overseas Buyers (phase dates): https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/content-detail?id=598494791797825536EN