Originally Posted by
VickersVicount
China have relaxed visa requirements in several cities to grow business and tourism, between three and six days visa free depending on the city or region. This is if you are transferring through China to a third country, Hong Kong and Taiwan count as third countries. Various cities are convenient transfer points for either Australia, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and others. China want more people to transfer through their country rather than with Thai, Emirates etc.
Sanya, which is another new route this summer from LHR, are advertising visa-free without travelling onwards.
Along with China’s ever-growing middle classes who want to travel, there are a few reasons why the market is booming at the moment. Whether it sustains remains to be seen.
Shanghai is quite mainstream of course, but many of the other cities with new routes to the UK have had non-stop routes to other cities in Europe for some time. There are also notable cities such as Hangzhou with no UK route as yet.