Selling China again: visas, flights and a first costing

Your clients are asking about Shanghai, Beijing and the Canton Fair again, and many counters have never quoted a China tour package from India before. There's no DMC on file, no idea what a China visa for Indians involves in 2026, and no sense of which flights operate this month versus last season.

China doesn't work like the visa-free Southeast Asia products your counter runs every week. Every client needs a filed visa, the direct-flight map is real but thin, and your margin on a first group rides on lines that have nothing to do with how hard you negotiate the land rate. This post walks through it, dated, so you can quote the next enquiry straight.

Why China is back on your enquiry sheet (as of October 2026)

Direct India-China flights were suspended for about five years from early 2020. On 2 October 2025, MEA announced that the two countries' civil aviation authorities had agreed direct air services could resume by late October 2025, in the winter schedule, subject to each designated carrier's commercial decision. All India Radio reported the first passengers from New Delhi landing in Shanghai on 10 November 2025.

Visas followed a similar unfreezing. The Chinese Embassy in India announced that its Online Visa Application System would go live on 22 December 2025, letting applicants fill the form and upload documents online before taking the passport to a visa centre.

And the trade reason to care right now: the Canton Fair's 140th session opened in Guangzhou on 14 October 2026, in its 70th-anniversary year, and Premier Li Qiang told the opening ceremony it had more than 300,000 buyers this year across 1.55 million sq m. Expect business and factory-visit traders to ask first; leisure Shanghai-Beijing enquiries tend to follow.

Indians always need a visa for China

Yes, always, before you fly. India sits on neither of China's visa-free lists: not the 30-day unilateral visa-free list (50 countries when the Mumbai centre published its FAQ in February 2026), nor the 240-hour transit list of 57 countries (whose nine Asian members are Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, Singapore, South Korea, the UAE and Vietnam). A tourist client files an L visa; a Canton Fair or factory-visit client files an M visa.

Careful: there's no visa-on-arrival route for a tourist and no shortcut through Hong Kong. A Hong Kong Pre-Arrival Registration gives Indians up to 14 days visa-free in Hong Kong itself, valid for six months once registered, but it doesn't cover the mainland. Don't let a client (or a junior counter staffer) assume a Hong Kong stopover means China is covered too.

The online visa process, step by step, and where it stalls

Every applicant goes through the same three steps at a Chinese Visa Application Service Centre (CVASC), as the Delhi and Mumbai centres publish it:

1. Online submission. Pay the centre's own service fee (Normal or Express, a choice that can't be changed later), create an account, fill the form, and upload the passport, photo, supporting documents and payment confirmation. The file goes into online review.
2. Centre visit, within 15 days. Once the status reaches "online review completed," an email carries a Visa Application Certificate. Take that certificate, the original passport and any requested originals to the centre, no appointment needed, within 15 days of the confirmation email. The visa fee itself is paid at the counter; it can't be paid online.
3. Collection. Pick up the passport using the pick-up form once the visa is ready.

Careful: "online review completed" is not the same as "visa approved." The centres are explicit about this. Don't tell a client their visa is through until you're holding the stamped passport.

Collection runs from the day the passport is submitted at the counter, not from when you filed online, and the online-review wait itself isn't published: Delhi's normal service collects on the 6th working day, express on the 4th; Mumbai says around 5 working days normal, 4 express, and 2 for urgent (after consulate approval). In April 2026 Delhi told applicants to file online well in advance because application volume had increased, still the safest instruction to give a client.

Two document traps catch Indian files most often. An L (tourist) visa needs bank statements for the last three months showing a consistent minimum monthly balance of ₹1 lakh, or a deposit certificate of a similar amount made at least three months before applying. An M (Canton Fair/business) visa needs the Chinese inviter's business licence with a handwritten Chinese signature and a "strictly used for visa application of [name]" note, an invitation letter with the company's official seal (not a contract or personnel seal), and a cover letter stating a specific purpose and exact duration; the centre warns that a generic description such as "business meetings" might not be accepted.

Jurisdiction matters too: residents of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal file through Kolkata, Maharashtra and Karnataka through Mumbai, everyone else through Delhi, by the passport's place of issue. Mumbai also publishes an 08:00-12:00 submission window for "Registered Travel Agents and Representatives." Delhi's FAQ, which predates the online system, still says applicants come in person, so confirm with Delhi or Kolkata before promising a client they won't need to visit.

Compare this to Japan's e-visa route, which a JATA-registered agency lodges on the client's behalf. China's online system still ends at a counter: build the 15-day visit window into your timeline.

What the visa costs per client, and the 31 December cliff

The Embassy's reduced visa fees for Indian passport holders run until 31 December 2026: ₹2,900 single entry, ₹4,400 double entry, ₹5,900 six-month multiple, ₹8,800 for 12-month-or-longer multiple. A group visa runs ₹1,800 per applicant, though minimum group size and sponsorship rules aren't published, so confirm with the centre before quoting a group rate.

That's separate from the CVASC's own service fee, non-refundable and revised quarterly with the USD-INR rate. What a client actually pays, combining both:

Entry type	Visa fee	Delhi total (regular)	Mumbai/Kolkata total (regular)
Single entry	₹2,900	₹5,007	₹5,052
Double entry	₹4,400	₹6,507	₹6,552
Six-month multiple	₹5,900	₹8,007	₹8,052
12-month+ multiple	₹8,800	₹10,907	₹10,952

Express adds ₹1,800 and urgent ₹2,700 per application to the visa fee, where offered, and the centre's express service fee is higher too (₹3,106 in Delhi, ₹3,172 in Mumbai and Kolkata). Fingerprint collection is also waived until 31 December 2026 for short-term visas with stays of up to 180 days (under-14s and over-70s are exempt in any case); D, J1, Q1, S1, X1 and Z applicants still give fingerprints.

Careful: both concessions end 31 December 2026, with nothing announced for after as of October 2026. Any visa filed after that date, which means most departures from January 2027 onward, including a spring Canton Fair trip, should have its visa line quoted "at actuals," not today's ₹5,007. The Delhi centre's FAQ advises applying about a month before entry, and not earlier than three months.

Direct flights in October 2026: what actually flies

Treat this as a snapshot, not a schedule, and confirm every route in your GDS on the day you quote. As of October 2026, IndiGo flies Kolkata-Shanghai daily, a service that started in March 2026 (the launch schedule announced 6E 1709 departing Kolkata 21:45 and landing in Shanghai 04:40 next day, and 6E 1710 departing Shanghai 05:40 and landing in Kolkata 09:05; timings may have changed since). Air China resumed Beijing-Delhi in April 2026.

China Southern said in September 2026 it would resume Guangzhou-Delhi from 21 September, ending a six-year suspension. Air India said in May 2026 it would pause Delhi-Shanghai from June to August 2026; its status since isn't confirmed, so check this route specifically rather than assume last season's timetable. This isn't a complete list of every carrier and city pair, which is one more reason to check the GDS.

That gives an open-jaw into Shanghai and out of Beijing (or the reverse) for a Shanghai-Beijing group, with Guangzhou direct from Delhi useful for Canton Fair. When directs don't line up, routing one-stop via Bangkok, Singapore or Hong Kong is the usual fallback; check the transit rules for that hub before you ticket.

Careful: on 25 November 2025, MEA said an Indian citizen from Arunachal Pradesh, holding a valid passport, was detained while transiting Shanghai airport en route to Japan. MEA said India had taken the matter up strongly and that the action violated China's own regulations allowing visa-free transit of up to 24 hours for nationals of all countries. If a client's passport shows a place of issue or address in Arunachal Pradesh, talk through the routing and layover city before ticketing.

A first costing: 6N Shanghai-Beijing for 16 paying pax

Example: this is a hypothetical costing, not a real quote; get your own handler's numbers before you price a client. A Delhi agency is costing a 6N/7D Shanghai (3N) plus Beijing (3N) group for 16 paying pax plus one tour manager, open-jaw Delhi-Shanghai and Beijing-Delhi, travelling in November or December 2026, so the visa is filed before the 31 December cliff.

The handler's land quote comes in at USD 690 per pax (twin share, 4-star hotels with breakfast, the Shanghai-Beijing high-speed train in second class, private coach, an English-speaking guide, entrances and Indian vegetarian meals). At an assumed ₹95/USD plus a 3% forex buffer on top: 690 x 95 = ₹65,550, x 1.03 = ₹67,517.

Line (per paying pax)	Amount
Land (USD 690, converted + 3% buffer)	₹67,517
Airfare	₹38,000
Visa (single entry, Delhi regular)	₹5,007
Tour manager cost, spread over 16	₹3,782
Total cost	₹1,14,306
Selling price at 12% margin	₹1,30,000

The tour manager line needs its own working: the hypothetical FOC term is one free land seat per 15 paying pax. The TM still needs air, visa and a ₹2,500/day fee for 7 days, totalling ₹60,507, spread over 16 at ₹3,782 each. That gives a margin of about 12% at ₹1,30,000 (₹15,694 a head, 12.07%), or ₹2,51,104 per departure before overheads.

Drop to 12 paying pax and it moves twice. FOC still honoured: ₹60,507 spread over 12 is ₹5,042 each, margin falls to ₹14,434 (11.10%), ₹1,73,208 for the departure. FOC lost below 15 paying: the TM's own land cost (₹67,517) gets added back, ₹1,28,024 over 12 is ₹10,669 each, margin collapses to ₹8,807 a head (6.77%), ₹1,05,684 for the departure. That swing dwarfs anything you'd gain haggling the handler's USD 690 down to USD 670.

One more line sits on top, and it's not optional: from 1 April 2026, TCS on an overseas tour programme package is 2% of the amount received with no threshold (5% if the traveller hasn't given a PAN), under the Income-tax Act, 2025, as the Finance Bill 2026 memorandum set out. That replaced the old 5%/20% slab, which applied to collections up to 31 March 2026 under the 1961 Act. The mechanics are covered in the TCS playbook; here it's enough to know that on, say, a ₹1,40,000 collection, 2% TCS is ₹2,800. TCS is on the full amount received, so its base includes GST, and GST is not charged on the TCS itself. GST sits on top too, per your agency's own scheme; don't compute it here.

Finding and vetting a Chinese ground handler

Run the same checks you'd run on any new overseas supplier, starting with the ten-point supplier check you'd use on any new DMC, then add what's specific to China:

• Ask for the Chinese business licence and tourism-authority travel-agency approval. China's Tourism Law requires both before an agency offers tourism services (Article 28), and Article 29 lists inbound tourism among the businesses a travel agency may run. Ask to see it, don't take it on trust.
• Get no-shopping, or named-shop, terms in writing. Article 35 bars agencies from luring tourists with unreasonably low prices or earning rebates from shopping stops, and from designating shops unless both sides agreed or the tourists asked, without affecting other tourists' itinerary. Where an agency breaks those rules, tourists can, within 30 days of the trip ending, require it to take back purchases and advance the refund. Put the same terms in your own contract.
• A written Indian vegetarian or Jain meal plan, city by city, confirmed before sign-off.
• Confirm who issues the L-visa invitation letter if the file needs one; the April 2026 notice didn't restate the older requirement, so ask the centre and the handler rather than guess.
• For Canton Fair groups, follow the Consulate General of India in Guangzhou's advisory: advance payment for a bulk order preferably through a contract, and the Chinese company's credentials checked through the Indian Embassy or Consulate, or a local government agency, before a long-term deal.
• Payment schedule and currency, agreed in writing, before the first advance goes out.

The client briefing: payments, apps and food

China runs on Alipay and WeChat, not UPI, and the apps your clients check every hour at home don't work on a Chinese network. Brief this before departure, not at the airport.

On payments, the Payment & Clearing Association of China's guide (posted by the Mumbai centre in July 2026) says foreign cards are accepted where the UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, JCB, Diners or Discover logo is shown (otherwise ask the cashier), and a UnionPay card is accepted at all merchant POS terminals in the mainland. Foreigners can bind an overseas card to Alipay or WeChat Pay, with a per-transaction limit of USD 5,000 and an annual limit of USD 50,000 as reported in 2024; treat those as dated, since app terms move. Travel guides report that UPI doesn't work in China; for any other Indian card, check it carries one of the logos above.

On connectivity, a travel guide updated in August 2026 reports that WhatsApp, Gmail, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X are blocked on Chinese networks and Google Maps doesn't work properly; it says travellers use international roaming from an Indian carrier or a roaming eSIM set up before landing. And foreigners have been able to file the China arrival card online since 20 November 2025, via the NIA website, the "NIA 12367" app, a WeChat/Alipay mini-programme, or at the port; group-visa holders are exempt.

Send this before every departure, filled in for the trip:

Namaste! A few things to set up before your China trip, as of October 2026:

1. Visa: carry your passport with the China visa stamped in. There is
   no visa-free entry for Indians, so this must be in hand before
   check-in.
2. Payments: install Alipay and bind a Visa or Mastercard before you
   fly. Cards work wherever you see the Visa/Mastercard/UnionPay logo;
   UnionPay is accepted most widely. Carry some cash as well.
3. Connectivity: WhatsApp, Gmail, Instagram and Google Maps do not
   work on local networks in China. Turn on international roaming on
   your Indian number, or carry a roaming eSIM, before you land.
4. Arrival card: can be filed online before you fly; we'll confirm if
   your group visa makes this unnecessary for you.
5. Food: your veg/Jain requirements are confirmed in writing with our
   handler. Carry a printed copy of this note too.
6. Carry the printed hotel addresses (in Chinese) we'll hand out at
   the pre-departure briefing.
7. Save these before you fly: your tour manager's number, the local
   handler's number, and the current Indian mission number for your
   route (pull it fresh from the mission's own website, not an old
   saved contact).

Each line answers a question a client would otherwise ask from a hotel lobby at 11 pm: what to carry, how to pay, why their phone stopped working, who to call. Update the arrival-card and contact lines for each trip; this isn't a one-time setup.

Common questions

China visa kaise milega for a tour group?

Under the online system each applicant has their own online file, then the certificate and passport go to the CVASC for their jurisdiction. A ₹1,800-per-applicant group visa fee is listed, but the centres don't publish the minimum group size or sponsorship rules, so confirm with the centre before quoting it.

How much does a China visa cost for Indians in 2026?

Between ₹2,900 (single entry) and ₹8,800 (12-month-plus multiple entry) in visa fee, plus the centre's own service fee of roughly ₹2,100-₹3,200. Both the reduced fee and the fingerprint waiver run only until 31 December 2026, with nothing announced beyond that date as of October 2026.

Is there a direct flight from India to China right now?

Yes, but thin and route-specific as of October 2026: IndiGo flies Kolkata-Shanghai daily, Air China resumed Beijing-Delhi in April 2026, and China Southern announced Guangzhou-Delhi from 21 September 2026. Air India's Delhi-Shanghai status after its mid-2026 pause isn't confirmed, so check your GDS rather than reuse last season's routing.

Can Indians use China's 240-hour visa-free transit?

No. India isn't on China's 30-day visa-free list or its 57-country 240-hour transit list, so every Indian visiting mainland China needs a visa filed in advance. MEA has cited China's own rule allowing visa-free transit of up to 24 hours for all nationalities, but treat any layover in China as a separate transit check, not something to assume at the gate.

China mein WhatsApp chalta hai kya?

No, not on local Chinese networks, according to travel guides as of 2026. The same guides report that travellers rely on international roaming from their Indian carrier or a roaming eSIM, set up before they land, to keep WhatsApp and Gmail working.

The short version

• Every Indian needs a filed visa for China: there's no visa-free or on-arrival route, and a Hong Kong transit doesn't cover the mainland (as of October 2026).
• The process is online first, then a counter visit with the passport within 15 days of "online review completed," which is not the same as approval.
• Budget ₹2,900-₹8,800 in visa fee plus a ₹2,100-₹3,200 centre service fee; both the reduced fee and the fingerprint waiver end 31 December 2026, so quote visa "at actuals" for anything filed after.
• Direct flights exist but are thin: IndiGo Kolkata-Shanghai, Air China Beijing-Delhi, China Southern Guangzhou-Delhi, as of October 2026. Check the GDS per departure.
• On a first group, the tour manager's FOC threshold swings your margin far more than negotiating the land rate by a few dollars, and the visa line after 31 December 2026 is still an unknown.
• Vet the handler's tourism-authority licence and get no-shopping terms in writing before you wire an advance.
• Brief clients on Alipay, roaming and blocked apps before they fly, not after they land.