Who Writes and Reviews These Pages

The China Door is written by a small editorial team that has spent time living and travelling in mainland China, with beats split between entry rules, money and transport, and destinations. Every page names the editor responsible, carries a verified date, and lists the official sources behind its numbers. This page explains who writes what, how a page is reviewed before it goes live, and how to dispute something we have published.

Last verified: 29 October 2026 · Sources: internal editorial records

Who writes The China Door?

One named China editor holds the desk, supported by specialist contributors for entry rules, payments and rail. The editor signs off every page that states a rule the reader might act on, and is the person who re-checks the visa-free list and the transit rules on the 30-day cycle. Contributors are credited on the pages they researched. We do not publish anonymous rule statements.

Kola is the China editor of The China Door and lives in Shanghai. The pages that state a rule a reader might act on are written and signed off here: who can enter without a visa, what a 240-hour transit passenger may do during the layover, which foreign cards clear at a Chinese till, and how to book a train seat that actually exists. Every figure on those pages is traced to a National Immigration Administration, foreign ministry or 12306 document, and the date it was last checked is printed at the top of the page.

The work is done from Shanghai rather than from a desk abroad: the visa-free list is re-checked against the immigration administration’s own announcements on a 30-day cycle, the 240-hour transit rules against the ports that publish them, and payment limits against what a foreign card actually clears on the ground. Where a page states something that is our judgement rather than an official position, the sentence says so.

How is a page reviewed before it publishes?

Three passes, in this order. The writer builds the page from the fact base and attaches a source to every number. The editor checks each number against the source and deletes anything that cannot be traced. Then a read-through asks one question: if a reader acted on this page and it was wrong, what would it cost them? Pages where the answer is “a missed flight or a refused boarding” get the closest check. Who does which pass, and how the site is funded, is set out on the about page.

1. Source pass. Every figure, fee, duration and date gets a link to an official page or a dated announcement.
2. Rule pass. The editor restates the rule in one sentence and compares it with the official wording, including the exceptions.
3. Reader pass. The page is read top to bottom as a traveller would, checking that the decision is clear before the detail.

What are the team’s writing standards?

Answer first, then the evidence. No sentence that would be true of any country. No number without a year. No “we tested” claim we cannot document. When a judgement is ours rather than an official position — which month feels crowded, whether a city is worth three days — the page says so in the sentence, with the words “in our view” or “editorial call”. When we cannot verify something, we say what to check and link to the page that decides it.

We also refuse a few things outright: no visa-outcome promises, no speculation presented as policy, no paid placement in a ranking, and no page published without a verified date at the top. The full standard, including the sourcing hierarchy, is on the methodology page.

How do you dispute or correct something?

Email editor@thechinadoor.com with the page URL, the sentence you think is wrong, and — if you have one — the official source that contradicts it. We reply within two working days. If you are right, the page is corrected the same week, the verified date is updated, and the correction is noted on the methodology page. If we cannot confirm either version, the sentence is removed rather than softened.

We are especially interested in hearing from readers who have just come through the border. A rule that worked at Beijing Capital and did not work at a land crossing is exactly the kind of thing no official page tells you, and it is worth a correction.

Do you take pitches or contributions?

Occasionally, from people who have a specific, verifiable angle: a new rail route you have taken, a payment method that failed (we track which foreign cards work), a procedure that changed at a specific port. Send a two-paragraph outline and the sources behind it. We do not accept contributed articles that carry a promotional purpose, and we do not pay for links.

If you are here to plan rather than to audit us, the useful starting point is the entry-rule overview, since everything else — dates, routes, bookings — depends on which rule you travel under.