Megan Singleton: BloggerAtLarge.com writer on China's visa-free travel extension

China's visa-free travel extension is expected to boost New Zealand's interest in visiting the nation, according to experts.

China launched a 15-day visa-free policy to New Zealand earlier in the year - and they've extended it to 30 days on a 'trial basis' until the end of 2025.

BloggerAtLarge.com writer Megan Singleton says this move was done to boost tourism - and travel agencies and businesses have approved of these changes.

Read more about Megan's travel tips for China here. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks AB Travel with Wendy wu Tours unique
fully inclusive tours around the World.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Megan Singleton is with us now blogger at large dot com.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Good morning, Good morning, Francesca.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hey, some good news. If you're a keywiend you're planning
on traveling to China.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Yes, so, up until last month, we kiwis have had
to get a visa to visit China and so most
other countries in the world, you know, and that took
a few weeks to get cost about two hundred dollars
and it was a right pain because I've been three
times to China now took a tour group there in
twenty nineteen. But as of last month's they've lifted that requirement.

(00:51):
So New Zealanders as well as a whole bunch of
countries not Americans, so ken travel to China for up
to thirty days visa free until the end of twenty
twenty five. So it's not a permanent thing. I guess
they're testing that. They're probably desperate for tourism if you
look at it, you know, to be honest, but it
is going to make a big change to people like

(01:12):
us who want to get over there. It's going to
save you know, a couple of hundred dollars on any
tour you might want to take, or you know, shopping
things like that that China's famous for. And I think
that's great news. So I didn't know if people would
have known that already, but I've just added it to
my blog post on twenty five things you need to
Know before you go to China, which covered a whole

(01:36):
lot of my first impressions and things that I didn't
sort of realized that I needed to know and now
I do, so that's good.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
And there are also several Chinese airlines flying direct from
New Zealand.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yes, of course, yes, that's right. I meant to say that. Yeah,
so you know, back before COVID, we had about eight
different airlines, different Chinese owned airlines, flying several times a
week in and out of New Zealand. And that not
only opened up China for US as a direct flight,
but it really opened up all that onward travel too,
through Asia and on Europe. So there a lot of

(02:08):
those are back and they are competitive, So I would
urge people to look at those they're flying the Dreamliners,
same aircraft as in New Zealand, sometimes a different configuration
and business class sometimes cheaper, probably often cheaper. So I
definitely look at that if you're planning to visit China
or going further afield and maybe you know and doing

(02:29):
the stopover now that you can do visa free in
Shanghai or Bancho or any of the other cities where
these airlines are coming out from. So nice little tip there.
China's still really cheap. I mean, Asia is still cheap.
So it's a really great holiday and I'm all for it.
I mean, there's so many fascinating facts about China. I
don't know how much time you've got. I could go on.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Share with me a couple of the things that surprise
you the most.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Okay, the main thing was that it's all on one
time zone, and actually if you looked at the map
of China, it would span eight time zones. So when
you're up and doing your shopping in Shanghai the farmer
over on the West coasters in the dark, to get
any selfur and coverage or get on the internet, you're
going to need a VPN, which is a virtual private

(03:17):
network maybe, yes it is. I've got it written on
my own blog, so that will allow you to access
the websites that you're used to accessing all the time.
But what you'll find is an amazing blend of culture.
Old old architecture, two thousands year old architecture. But right
above those or behind those are skyscrapers that look almost futuristic.

(03:37):
Makes places like Shanghai look like they're like these skyscrapers
look like their gravity defying. But then underneath you'll see
these sweet little tea houses that you can still go
and sit in, and it's just so fascinating. The Yankse
River is still incredibly popular. I'm just skipping through my blogs.
You'll need to download we chat. Yeah, so it's great fun,

(04:01):
good worth going back to

Speaker 1 (04:02):
I Think For more from the Sunday session with Franchessca
rud listen live to news Talks at b from nine
am Sunday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio