The day before: what actually needs doing
Leaving China is easier than arriving, and that is exactly why people get sloppy about it. The airport is efficient, the queues are shorter, and the failure mode is not the border but the small logistics: a refund desk that closes before your flight, a power bank without a capacity label, a pile of leftover yuan you cannot spend at home. I have watched a traveller argue with a check-in agent over a power bank for fifteen minutes and lose, and I have watched someone miss a tax refund of four hundred yuan because the goods were already in a checked bag.
Do four things the night before. Reconfirm the flight, because domestic schedule changes are common and the airline app is the only place that reliably tells you. Check your ticket’s terminal, which at Shanghai and Beijing matters enormously. Screenshot the boarding pass if the app allows it. And work out what you still need to do in cash.
What to do with leftover yuan
Use it down rather than converting it back. Airport exchange counters buy yuan at a poor rate and often demand the original exchange receipts, which nobody has by then. Spend the remaining notes on a last meal, a box of tea, or the departure-hall convenience store, and keep a couple of hundred for the taxi at the other end if your home airport needs it. If you genuinely have a lot left, an ATM at your destination can be a better deal than the airport counter, assuming your bank handles RMB at all.
Tax refund paperwork
The departure tax refund is real money and it is only claimable on the way out. Visitors can claim roughly 11 percent back on purchases of 500 yuan or more made in a single participating store on a single day, provided the goods leave unused within the allowed window. The paperwork has to be done at the airport, the goods have to be shown, and the queue can be long. If the item is a fragile ceramic or a bulky coat, plan to carry it on rather than burying it in a checked suitcase.
Getting to the airport without panic
Reserve the ride the night before. Early-morning departures are the danger zone, because metro lines stop around 11 p.m. and start again around 5:30 a.m., and a 6 a.m. international flight means a taxi pre-booked through your hotel or the app. Hotel reception will arrange it if you ask at check-in, and that is the single most reliable method in China.
Daytime departures are simpler: the metro or the airport express is cheap and predictable, and the train vs flight logic that governs domestic travel does not change the fact that you still need to be at the terminal early. Below is the timing I use.
| Departure type | Arrive before departure | Why |
|---|---|---|
| International, big hub | 3 hours | Check-in, tax refund, exit immigration, security |
| International, claiming VAT refund | 3.5 hours | Refund desk queues can run 30 to 60 minutes |
| Domestic, with checked bags | 2 hours | Bag drop closes 40 to 60 minutes before pushback |
| Domestic, hand luggage only | 90 minutes | Security is fast if you are prepared |
| Train from Hongqiao or a city station | 60 to 90 minutes | Station security and the platform walk |
| Land border to Hong Kong or Macao | Check the crossing hours | Luohu and Gongbei have rush-hour surges |
Those are the October 2026 norms at busy airports and they assume no holiday. During Spring Festival and the October national holiday, add an hour to everything and then add another, because the whole country is moving on the same days.
Check-in and bag drop
Counters open about three hours before an international departure and close 45 to 60 minutes before departure. There is no grace period and the agent will not call the plane for you. English is available at the international desks at Beijing Capital, Beijing Daxing, Shanghai Pudong, Guangzhou Baiyun, and Chengdu Tianfu; at smaller regional airports, the staff may not speak much, and a translation app with the flight number on screen handles it.
Weigh your bag at home if you can. Excess baggage on domestic Chinese routes is relatively cheap, but on international flights it is priced in dollars per kilo and it is brutal. Our domestic flights notes go into the fare structure if you are connecting onward inside the country.
Security, exit immigration, and the overstay problem
The power bank rule
Power banks must be in hand luggage and must have a legible capacity rating printed on the casing. No rating, no flight, and the bin beside security is full of them. Anything above roughly 100 watt-hours needs airline approval, and the practical ceiling for a personal device is around 27,000 mAh. This is the rule that catches more foreign visitors than anything else at a Chinese airport.
Liquids follow the standard international rule on international departures and there is no such restriction on domestic ones. Laptops come out of the bag. Belts and jackets come off at most checkpoints.
Exit immigration
This is usually five minutes. The officer scans your passport, checks the entry stamp or the electronic record, and stamps you out. Occasionally they ask how long you stayed or where you went, and the honest answer is fine. If you entered on a transit exemption, they may check the dates against the allowed window.
Overstaying is expensive
If you have stayed past the date on your visa or past the duration of stay written in your passport, expect a fine calculated per day of overstay, commonly around 500 yuan a day up to a cap, and in serious cases a detention period or a re-entry ban. Do not hope it goes unnoticed; the exit system knows exactly how long you were in the country. If you realise the day before that you have a problem, go to the local exit and entry administration office rather than the airport, because dealing with it there is calmer and faster. Confirm the current penalty schedule with official sources, since it has changed before.
Tax refunds and duty-free at the departure hall
The refund desk sits in the public area of the departure hall, before security at most airports, and you need three things: the refund form the shop gave you, the original receipts, and the goods themselves. Get the customs verification stamp, then collect the cash or the card refund at the counter beside it. Cash refunds are immediate; card refunds take days to weeks and I always take the cash.
Duty-free is unremarkable on price except for Chinese liquor and some cosmetics, and baijiu is genuinely worth buying here because the selection is better than anything you will see abroad. The airport shops take cards and phone payment. There is no tipping anywhere in the process, and our tipping page explains why the tip jar you sometimes see is a foreign import.
Leaving by land or rail instead of air
The train to Hong Kong
The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link ends at Hong Kong West Kowloon, where mainland and Hong Kong immigration sit in the same building. You clear exit formalities on the mainland side of the station, walk through, and enter Hong Kong. It is fast and it is the nicest border crossing in the region. Routes and ticket rules for that corridor are on our crossing between China, Hong Kong, and Macao page.
Land borders
Luohu and Futian in Shenzhen, and Gongbei in Zhuhai, handle huge pedestrian volumes. Weekday mornings are the worst. If you are crossing to Hong Kong for a flight, the airport is a long way from the border, so budget the full transfer rather than treating the crossing as the finish line.
Leaving with data
Keep your eSIM or SIM alive until you are through, because the airport WiFi portals want a mainland phone number and you do not have one once your plan expires. Our SIM and eSIM page covers how long the tourist plans stay valid and what happens at the border.
Quick facts
- Arrive three hours before an international flight, three and a half if you are claiming a VAT refund.
- Power banks ride in hand luggage and need a legible capacity label or they get confiscated.
- Refund desks sit before security; keep refundable goods out of checked bags.
- Spend down leftover yuan instead of converting it back at the airport.
- Metro lines stop around 11 p.m. and restart around 5:30 a.m., so pre-book early taxis.
- Overstay fines are calculated per day and the exit system knows your exact dates.
- Check-in counters close 45 to 60 minutes before departure and never wait.
Frequently asked questions
How early should I leave my hotel?
Work backwards from three hours before departure, then add 60 to 90 minutes for the ride at a big hub like Beijing or Shanghai. For a 10 a.m. flight out of Pudong, that means leaving the hotel around 5:30 a.m.
Can I get the VAT refund if the goods are already checked in?
Sometimes, but you will have to retrieve them or fail. Pack anything you intend to claim in hand luggage, or check in later after the refund desk visit. The order is refund desk, then bag drop.
What happens to my Chinese SIM at the border?
Nothing dramatic. It stops working once you are outside the mainland network or once the plan expires. If you want to keep the number, top it up before leaving, but for a tourist SIM it is not worth the trouble.
Do I need to fill in a departure card?
Almost never. Exit formalities are a passport scan and a stamp. If a form appears on a flight or at a land border, fill it in, but do not go looking for one.
Can I carry duty-free liquids bought after security?
Yes, in the sealed bag with the receipt, and keep the seal intact if you are connecting onward through another country. This is standard international practice, not a Chinese quirk.
Is there anything I cannot take out of China?
Antiques without the official authentication seal, ivory and other endangered-species products, and cultural relics. If a shop offers to ship an “antique” for you, treat that as a warning sign and read our customs and duty allowances notes before you buy anything old.
Can I leave from a different city than I entered?
Yes, as long as your visa allows it, and most multi-entry or duration-of-stay visas do. Only the transit exemptions are strict about where you enter and leave, and that is a separate rule you should check before booking.
Leave with the refund claimed and the power bank in hand
Send us your flight, your departure airport, and whether you are claiming a refund, and we will build the timing backwards from the departure time so the last day of the trip is not the most stressful one.
Written by the ChinaTravelFood editorial team.
