Also, there are reports that sometimes the agents at check-in at your starting airport might not be knowledgeable about the 144-hour transit without visa.
Flyertalk (a forum that is about airlines and mainly visited by frequent flyers) has a very good thread about all the different visa exemptions for China:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chin...it-without-visa-twov-rules-master-thread.html
The things I have learned from there are:
1) tell your check-in agent that China is not your destination, but your transit country
2) be sure that you have confirmed flights for the destination you travel to after China (which must be different from the country you visited just before entering China)
3) verify that you can travel without visa on Timatic (which is the info system the airlines use). I just googled Timatic and found access points to it.
4) never call the 144-hours transit without visa a "visa". It is not a visa, you do not need one if you comply with the rules. Calling it a visa can only cause misunderstandings
5) make sure that you are at check-in as early as possible before your first leg.
6) if you connect on your flight to China, ask to be at least checked in to the next airport from where the flight to China leaves and try to get it resolved there.
We are going to attempt this in early summer. I will report back on how it worked.
We are going to fly with Swiss Airlines from Germany, connecting in Zurich in Switzerland. Swiss actually has info on immigration regulations on their website:
https://www.swiss.com/de/EN/prepare/travel-regulations/immigration-regulations-worldwide It has a link to what I think is ultimately the Timatic database. I have tested it and if I enter Japan as destination and China as transit I get the following info:
Visa required.
Passengers transiting only are exempt from holding a visa when:
Nationals of Germany holding confirmed onward air, cruise or train tickets to a third country, arriving and departing from any one of the following locations: Hangzhou (HGH), Nanjing Lukou (NKG), Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) or Shanghai Pudong (PVG) for a maximum of 144 hours, starting from 00:01 on the day following the day of entry.
This also applies to passengers traveling from/to Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal, Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal and Shanghai Railway Station.
I intend to print this out and bring this as well.
To be honest I am quite nervous... The good thing is that thanks to European law if they make us miss our flight because they don't understand that we can travel, we will get 600 € each (assuming that this will lead to a delay of arrival of more than 4 hours). But we really don't want to miss any of our rather short time in Shanghai...