240-Hour Transit Visa Itenerary Shanghai Adventure
We're planning our first trip to Shanghai and honestly? We're doing it backwards – starting with the visa situation and building the adventure around it.
The 240-Hour Magic
China's 240-hour (10-day) transit visa is kind of brilliant if you can make it work. You need to be transiting through to a third country, which we are (flying Chiang Mai → Shanghai → somewhere else), and boom – 10 days in Shanghai without the usual visa paperwork. The catch? Your 240 hours start ticking at midnight on arrival day, so every hour counts.
Our First Draft Plan
We've sketched out what we think could be an amazing 10 days:
- Day 1: Jump straight into a city highlights tour to get oriented
- Day 2: Escape to the water town of Zhujiajiao
- Day 3: Disney magic (because why not?)
- Day 4: Actual rest day with a food tour
- Day 5: Shanghai Zoo for some animal therapy
- Day 6: Pure wandering through Tianzifang, Xintiandi, and wherever our feet take us
- Day 7: Museums and the famous Bund light show
- Days 8-9: Buffer days for when reality hits our ambitious plans
This is definitely a first draft – we're expecting to adjust everything once we're actually there and figure out what Shanghai throws at us. But having a loose framework feels good, especially when working with that visa countdown.
The real question now: what are we missing? Any Shanghai locals or veterans have thoughts on our rookie itinerary?
More planning updates to come as we get closer to departure...
10-Day Visual Itinerary
