Hainan visa-free rules: 61 countries, 30 days

Updated 2026-10-15: Wildfire near Mongolia-China border in Inner Mongolia, 2,000 firefighters deployed.

If your passport is one of 61 nationalities, you can enter Hainan for up to 30 days with no visa. The limit is geographic: the waiver covers Hainan province only. Fly on to Shanghai or Guangzhou and you are outside it — you would need a visa, applied for on the island before your 30 days expire.

Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam were added on 20 August 2026 under National Immigration Administration Announcement No. 4 of 2026, taking the list from 59 to 61. Guides written before that date are out of date.

Which passports qualify

Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam.

Eight nationalities — Czech, Indonesian, Lithuanian, Kyrgyz, Mexican, Ukrainian, Vietnamese and US passports — have no nationwide option, so Hainan's 30 days or 240-hour transit are their only visa-free ways in.

Three routes in

At the border

1. Arrive from outside mainland China. A direct international flight from your own country works; if yours has none, connect in a third country or in Hong Kong or Macau. Landing in Beijing or Shanghai first does not count.
2. Use an open Hainan port: Haikou Meilan, Sanya Phoenix or Qionghai Boao airport, or the seaports at Haikou, Sanya, Yangpu, Qinglan and Basuo.
3. File nothing in advance. Border inspection admits you on your ordinary passport; the old travel-agency registration is gone.
4. Stay inside the province. Tourism, business and trade, visits and exchanges, family reunions, medical treatment, exhibitions and sports competitions all qualify. Work, study and news reporting do not.
5. Want the mainland or more time? Apply to Hainan's exit-entry administration before the 30 days run out. The clock starts at 00:00 the day after you arrive, not at landing.

No insurance document is required for visa-free entry, but medical treatment is one of the listed reasons to come, and a hospital bill in Sanya is yours to pay. If you want cover that settles claims in China rather than arguing about them later, compare all the main travel medical policies before you book the flight.

Last checked: 2026-10-15