Every rule, fee and date on this site is traced to a primary source — a government portal, an official announcement or a state ticketing system — and each page prints the date it was last checked against that source. Entry and payment rules are re-checked every 30 days, transport pages every 90 days, destination pages every 180 days. Anything we cannot trace is labelled an editorial estimate or left out, and every correction is logged with the date it was made.
Last verified: 29 October 2026 · Sources: our sourcing rules, review log and correction log
- Sourcing rule — a rule is only as good as the official page that states it
- Re-check cycle — 30 days for entry and money, 90 for transport, 180 for destinations
- Corrections — answered within two working days, fixed the same week if verifiable
- Commerce — no paid rankings, no paid mentions, disclosures above the links
Which sources count, and in what order?
We use a four-level hierarchy. A page may only state a rule at the highest level that covers it, and if two levels disagree we publish the higher one and say where the lower one differs.
| Level | What it is | How we use it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Primary official | National Immigration Administration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, State Council, embassy and consular pages, provincial government portals, the official ticketing system for a site | States the rule, the fee, the window and the exception. Quoted, with the link on the page. |
| 2. Official secondary | Visa application centre pages, national rail and airline systems, municipal culture and tourism bureaux | Fills in process detail — hours, forms, payment channels — when level 1 is silent. |
| 3. Operator and marketplace | Airline, rail and hotel booking platforms, attraction resellers | Confirms what a traveller will actually be asked for. Never used to state a rule. |
| 4. Press and forums | News reports, Reddit, TripAdvisor, YouTube | Used to find a level-1 document, or to describe experience. Not cited as evidence for a rule. |
If the only source for something is level 3 or 4, the sentence is either cut or written as a caveat, and it is never given a number that looks official. This is why our visa pages quote the immigration service and not a news summary of it, and why our payments page quotes the wallet operators’ own fee schedules instead of the affiliate blogs that copy them.
How often is each page re-checked?
The cycle is set by how expensive an error would be, not by how often a page is read.
| Page type | Re-check cycle | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Visa, transit, entry rules | 30 days | Lists and cut-off dates change without much notice; a stale date can cost a trip. |
| Payments, eSIM, money | 30 days | Wallet limits, card acceptance and roaming packages move quarterly. |
| Trains, transport, airports | 90 days | Schedules change with the seasonal timetable, roughly four times a year. |
| Destinations and attractions | 180 days | Opening hours and booking channels drift slowly; ticket prices we do not publish as fixed numbers anyway. |
| Itineraries and tours | Before each peak season | Routing and cost bands follow capacity, not policy. |
Every page carries the result of its last pass at the top, in the form “Last verified: 29 October 2026”. A page that has missed its cycle is not silently left online: it is re-checked or the date is withdrawn.
What happens when a rule changes between cycles?
We do not wait for the calendar. When a primary source publishes a change, the affected pages are updated within 48 hours, the verified date moves, and the change is noted in the correction log. The most common example is a visa-free arrangement being extended or allowed to lapse — which is why the visa-free country list states both the rule and the date the arrangement currently runs to, and why our 240-hour transit page names the ports rather than describing them generally.
How do we handle numbers we cannot confirm?
Three options, in order: find the primary number; publish a range and label it an editorial estimate; or omit it. A number without a unit, a currency and a year does not ship. Where a figure is our judgement — how long a visit needs, which month feels crowded — the sentence says so with “in our view” or “editorial call”, and the reasoning sits next to it.
If a paragraph would still be true with the country name changed, it is not research. It is filler, and it does not go on the page.
What do we do with AI tools?
AI tools are used for structure, for checking our own drafts against a source, and for spotting sentences that would be true of anywhere. They are not used to generate facts, to produce quotations, or to name a source we have not opened. No page is published without a human editor tracing every number on it to a level-1 or level-2 document. When a page has been substantially drafted with machine assistance, the editor still signs it off and the byline stays with the person who checked it.
How is a recommendation kept separate from commerce?
Some pages carry affiliate links to eSIM providers, rail booking platforms and insurance. The disclosure sits on the page, above the links, and the table order is set before anyone looks at commission rates. No brand has ever been offered, and none will be offered, a ranking position: the only thing that decides placement is the reason written next to it — a price, a cancellation term, a waiting time. If we cannot write the reason, the entry is removed. This is the same standard described on the about page.
How do you correct us?
Email editor@thechinadoor.com with the URL, the sentence and, if you have it, the official source. We reply within two working days. A verifiable error is fixed the same week and the fix is logged; where the two versions cannot be reconciled, the sentence is deleted rather than softened. Corrections from readers who have just crossed a border are the most valuable ones we get — the team page explains who reads them.
Sources
- National Immigration Administration — level-1 source for entry, transit and registration rules
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC — visa categories and consular statements
- The State Council of the PRC — the announcements behind policy changes
- Chinese Visa Application Service Centre — level-2 process detail: forms, hours, fees
Check us against the primary source. Every rule we publish links to the document it came from. If you want to see how the pages are built before you trust them, start with the entry rule: which route applies to your passport.