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Police shout down visa-free stopover extension

By Meng Jing and Xin Dingding (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-28 07:50

The city's exit and entry administration voiced concerns yesterday about a Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) proposal to extend Beijing's Transit Without Visa (TWOV) to seven days.

A policeman from the exit and entry administration of the Beijing public security bureau, who asked not to be named, believed there was no reason for Beijing to change its current 24-hour TWOV policy.

"We haven't noticed a huge demand in travelers who want to stay in Beijing for a longer time," he told METRO yesterday.

He added that a one-week TWOV policy wouldn't work in China because many countries in the world don't open a similar program to Chinese citizens.

Zhang Zhizhong, president of the Capital Airports Holding Company, told media on Tuesday at the ongoing municipal people's congress that relative government departments should adjust the current policy to allow international transit travelers a seven-day stay in Beijing without the need for a visa. The plan is intended to build BCIA into an Asia-Pacific air hub by 2015.

Zhang also suggested the municipal government to link high-speed railway, urban railways and expressways to the airport, to form a seamless transport network and benefit travelers.

At present, the visa-free stay of 24 hours is too short for international transit travelers, Wang Jian, secretary-general of China Civil Airport Association, told METRO yesterday in a telephone interview.

"It will be attractive to business travelers because it saves them procedural troubles," Wang said, adding, "It also does good to the local economy."

More than 65 million passengers arrived and departed from BCIA in 2009, making it the third busiest airport in the world after Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta and Heathrow in London.

Bei'ao Travel, a Beijing-based travel agency that specializes in international travel, welcomed the proposal. Founded in 1996, the agency has handled around 2,000 international travelers annually over the past three years.

"Around half of our customers travel through China to other countries, like the Philippines or Thailand. These countries don't require a visa from most European countries. The proposal will help them because it makes it a visa-free journey," said Tian Jianyong, manager of the agency.

Tian said his company's international travel business was down 30 percent in 2009 compared with previous years, due to the global financial crisis and H1N1 influenza.

"Around 200 people in northern Europe have already enrolled in our travel groups for the coming summer. If the proposal starts and the global economy recovers, our business might do very well," he added.

However, Sharon White, an English teacher in Beijing, has a different view. "I doubt it impacts on many people; it's just for those who use Beijing as a stopover before heading elsewhere, but who would want to do that?" she said.