Entering China by Land: Border Crossings from Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia and Russia

Last updated: October 2026

Foreign travelers can enter China overland, and most can do it without a visa. Nine crossings are practical: three from Vietnam, one from Laos, one from Mongolia, three from Russia and one from Kazakhstan. All take ordinary passports, and the 30-day visa-free scheme applies at every one.

Which land borders can foreign travelers actually use?

Most of China's land frontier is closed to tourists. What remains open is a short list of crossings where the inspection hall handles foreign passports.

Can you enter China visa-free at a land border?

Yes. China's unilateral 30-day visa-free scheme applies at every land, sea and air port open to foreign travelers, not just at airports. If your passport is on the 50-country list, you can walk across at Dongxing or ride the train through Mohan with no visa in hand.

The 240-hour route is where people slip up. It needs a confirmed onward ticket to a third country within 240 hours, so a loop that ends where it started does not qualify. Crossing at Mohan from Laos and flying home from Kunming works; crossing at Mohan and returning to Laos does not. The list is amended several times a year and most extensions run to December 31, 2026, so confirm your nationality before booking. The 240-hour transit guide covers the conditions, and this comparison of entry routes is the short version.

Which Vietnam crossing should you pick?

Dongxing is the coastal option, roughly an hour by road from Halong Bay and linked to Nanning by high-speed rail. Since March 23, 2026 the old Beilun River bridge handles only border-permit holders, Chinese residents with multi-entry permits and travelers buying a port visa; everyone else clears at the No. 2 bridge three kilometers downstream. Clearance runs 08:00–21:00 Beijing time.

Youyiguan, near Pingxiang, is the direct route to Nanning and the one to take for the train. The T8701/MR2 leaves Nanning at 18:05 and reaches Hanoi's Gia Lam station at 06:30, about twelve hours in all-soft-sleeper stock; the return leaves Hanoi at 22:20 and arrives at 10:06. The service restarted on May 25, 2025 after a five-year pause and carried 31,700 passengers from more than 50 countries in its first year. Tickets are sold at Nanning, Guilin, Chongzuo and Pingxiang stations.

Hekou faces Lao Cai in Yunnan and pairs with the overnight sleeper from Hanoi. A new joint-inspection hall opened in 2024, and it is the natural way in for Kunming, Jianshui or the Yuanyang terraces.

Is the China–Laos railway the easiest overland route?

For most travelers, yes. The 1,035-kilometer line from Mohan to Vientiane opened in December 2021, international passenger trains began on April 13, 2023, and the service now runs four international trains a day with 420 cross-border seats on each. Kunming South to Vientiane takes as little as 9 hours 36 minutes.

By October 15, 2026 the international trains had carried more than one million cross-border passengers, including over 151,000 foreign nationals, and visa-free entries were above 55 percent of that foreign total. One warning: the railway crosses at Mohan, but the road crossing in the same town is a separate facility with its own hours, so arriving by bus from Luang Namtha is a slower morning.

What about Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan?

Erenhot is the Mongolian gateway and the only place here where you will notice the gauge: Chinese track is standard, Mongolian and Russian track is 1,520 millimeters, so trains pause while the bogies are swapped. K23/K24 links Beijing with Ulaanbaatar through Erenhot on a less-than-daily schedule, so check 12306 before building a trip around it. The road port handles passengers 08:00–18:00, with freight hours extended to 21:00 for the May–September season.

Manzhouli is the busiest Russian crossing and the easiest: the road port has run 24-hour clearance since May 15, 2023, and average passenger processing is under three minutes. In the year to September 14, 2026, 753,000 Russian travelers entered this way, up 51.2 percent, and close to 70 percent came visa-free under an exemption both governments have extended to December 31, 2027. Suifenhe is the quieter Russian option, with two passenger trains a day on the rail side, and Heihe faces Blagoveshchensk across the Amur.

Horgos is the Kazakhstan gateway, and it comes with a trap. The Horgos International Border Cooperation Center is a duty-free zone straddling the border that issues its own entry permit, and that permit lets you walk around the zone but not into Kazakhstan proper. The center runs 10:00–18:00 Beijing time. For Almaty you need the actual road port, not the shopping zone. Kazakh and Chinese ordinary passport holders have traveled visa-free since November 10, 2023, for up to 30 days per entry.

What should you carry at a land port?

Land ports are less forgiving than airports: no airline staff to fix a missing document.

• The original passport. A photo or an e-copy will not be accepted anywhere on this list.
• The onward ticket, if you are using the 240-hour route. Keep the itinerary on your phone as well as on paper.
• The arrival card, filed online. Since November 20, 2025 foreign visitors can file it through the National Immigration Administration's site or mini programs before traveling; it is free, and group visas are among seven exempt categories.
• A booking or invitation that matches what you say at the counter. Since September 15, 2026 a State Council regulation requires travelers to state their purpose truthfully, and false statements or false invitation letters can end in a refusal.
• Cash in small notes. Border towns are the last place in China where a card reader may not exist.

How does an overland arrival fit a longer trip?

Better than most travelers expect. An overland entry changes the shape of a route: instead of flying into Beijing and working outward, you start in Hanoi, Vientiane or Almaty and the border becomes the first day of the trip.

That shape suits three kinds of travel. Leisure travelers use the Laos railway for a two-country itinerary with no internal flights. Business travelers crossing from Vietnam or Kazakhstan save a day of airport time. School and university groups prefer the rail crossings at Mohan and Youyiguan because the whole group clears together. Our tailor-made and special interest travel team builds these with a driver meeting the group on the Chinese side, which is the one piece that rewards advance planning. For the list of visa-free countries behind these routes, see the 2026 visa-free overview.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a visa to enter China by land?

Not if your passport is on China's 50-country list, because the 30-day scheme applies at land borders as well as airports. Travelers from the 57 nationalities covered by the 240-hour transit policy also enter without a visa, with an onward ticket to a third country. Everyone else needs a visa before arriving.

Can I use the 240-hour transit rule at a land border?

Yes, at the crossings on the official port list, which include Mohan, Hekou, Dongxing, Youyiguan, Erenhot, Manzhouli, Suifenhe, Horgos, Hunchun, Dongning and the Heihe and Tongjiang river ports. The condition is a confirmed onward ticket to a third country within 240 hours.

How long does border clearance take?

At Manzhouli processing averages under three minutes; at the Mohan rail port a whole international train clears in about 50 minutes. At Dongxing and Hekou the formalities are quick, but the queue is the real variable, so avoid arriving just after a bus unloads.

Is the Hanoi to Nanning train running again?

Yes. T8701/MR2 runs daily: Nanning 18:05 to Hanoi 06:30, returning Hanoi 22:20 to Nanning 10:06. It resumed on May 25, 2025.

Can I drive my own car across the border?

Only with paperwork most travelers do not have: a temporary export declaration through a licensed agency, translated and notarized documents, and rules that differ at every crossing. For a first overland trip, take a bus, a train, or a car with a Chinese driver on the far side.