Onward travel and visa requirements for some countries
I am one of those always-arrive-early type people, but due to delays in my earlier flight, when I got to the gate for a flight to Beijing, there were only about 6 people still there still boarding, including 2 women who didn’t have the required visas and were having a hard time understanding that they couldn’t take the flight.
Don’t let this happen to you — Make sure you have the proper visas and continuing flights as required by where ever you go. Some countries require that you have flights out of the country to prove you are leaving. Others require you to get a visa in advance. I’ve seen people not allowed on flights before for not having done these things, don’t let it be you. as that will literally ruin your whole trip. Make sure you check the requirements for your particular nationality as the rules are often different by where you are from.
Luckily, my plane was only about two thirds full so there were many empty seats for people to spread out a little. I was able to sleep quite well because of my sleep kit. When I woke for breakfast I looked out the window and thought China was drier than I’d expected, but then I realized we were coming in from the northwest over the Gobi desert. (Duh! lol)
If you are from the US and want to go to China, check out how to get a Chinese visa. The Chinese entry process was different than any place I’d ever been before. I got fingerprinted twice while going through immigration (many countries do fingerprints, it’s just odd the Chinese security did it twice).
After you get through security, you can get a SIM card in the baggage claim area. They installed it for me and then confirmed was working. I can confirm that my Discover card was accepted with no issue there since they took UnionPay (U.S. credit cards generally don’t work in China although the situation is improving), so if you have a Discover card you are in luck (at least for getting a SIM card at the airport, I wasn’t so lucky at other places in China).
