Our China Travel · 9 November 2026 · Original checklist worksheet, expanded
▸ How this sheet works: work down the three tables in order, because each table gates the one below it. Table 1 decides whether the trip can exist at all; Table 2 decides whether the days before it are calm; Table 3 decides whether arrival day goes smoothly. Write the date you confirmed each item, and the source you used, rather than leaving a tick with no trace. Print or save this file before you fly.
Most packing lists you will find treat preparation as one flat pile of things to remember. This sheet does not, because the real pre-departure process is a chain of dependencies, and doing steps out of order does not just waste time — it removes options.
Consider how the rows connect. Your passport's entry status (Table 1, row 1) determines whether you need a consulate appointment at all; that appointment's queue length (row 4) determines the earliest date you can realistically fly; and that date determines everything else in the file. If a region on your list needs a separate permit (row 5), the permit's processing time and its organised-tour requirement may force your whole itinerary to change shape — which is a booking-stage problem, not a packing-stage one. Working Table 1 last means discovering these facts after you have paid for flights.
The same logic runs through Tables 2 and 3. A payment fallback set up at your kitchen table (Table 2) is a five-minute task; the same task attempted on arrival day, jet-lagged, on an airport bench, over hotel wi-fi, with your suitcase blocking a walkway, is an hour of quiet panic. The sheet's order is not aesthetic. It is the order in which each item stops being fixable easily.
Each table exists because a specific class of failure, and it helps to know which class you are guarding against as you fill it in.
Table 1 prevents unfixable trips. Everything in it is a gate: entry status, passport validity, transit allowances, visa lead time, regional permits. A gate either opens or it does not, and no amount of packing cleverness changes the answer. The point of writing dates and references in these rows is that they are the rows where two sources disagree most often, and where an outdated answer costs the most.
Table 2 prevents expensive improvisation. These are the items that are cheap to prepare at home and expensive to solve on the road: payment fallbacks, tested connectivity, offline maps, your accommodation's address in Chinese characters, medication in original packaging with a written note. None of them will end your trip if skipped — but each one, skipped, converts some ordinary moment of the trip into a negotiation you did not want.
Table 3 prevents the worst arrival day. These steps take minutes at the departure gate and save the first hour after landing: testing your data option and one payment app, saving the hotel's Chinese address somewhere reachable offline, settling the registration question with your accommodation, writing down onward transport and emergency contacts. Arrival day is when every small gap in preparation surfaces at once, with your full luggage and your worst judgment of the trip attached.
When you use the sheet, watch these four dependency chains in particular:
| Item | Why it gates the booking | Where to confirm it | Date confirmed | Result / reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your passport's nationality and current visa-free or visa-required status | The answer decides whether you need a consulate appointment at all, and it changes between editions of the scheme | The official immigration or foreign-affairs source for your own nationality | ||
| Passport validity measured against your intended exit date | Validity is checked on the way out as well as on the way in, and different sources quote different margins | Your passport plus the same official source as row 1 | ||
| Whether your route passes through a third country | Transit-only allowances are separate from tourist allowances and carry their own time limit | The official transit-allowance list for your nationality | ||
| Visa application lead time, if a visa is still required | Processing and appointment queues set the earliest date you can realistically fly | The visa centre that serves your region | ||
| Regions inside the country that need a separate permit | A permit and an organised tour can be a precondition for entry, not an optional extra | The official source or a licensed agency |
| Item | What to prepare | Where to get it | Date prepared | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payment fallback set | Two payment apps installed and set up before departure, plus a card and a small cash reserve | Your bank and the apps themselves | ||
| Connectivity plan | A data option that works on arrival, tested on your own handset, with a second option written down | Your carrier or a travel data provider | ||
| Offline map and translation tools | Downloaded content rather than streaming, so they work without a live connection | The app stores | ||
| Your hotel's name and address in Chinese characters | A physical card or an offline screenshot, since the English name may not be recognised | Your accommodation, before you leave | ||
| Medication, prescriptions and a written medical note | Original packaging plus the reason you carry it | Your prescriber | ||
| Battery and charging reserve | A power bank inside your airline's published limit, plus the cable your phone actually needs | Your airline's baggage rules | ||
| Toilet kit | Tissues, hand sanitiser and closed shoes you can walk in | Any shop before departure |
| Step | What to do | Why it matters on arrival day | Done (date) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Turn your prepared data option on and test one payment app | Both are hardest to fix on the day you land, when your hotel name is the only address you can show | |
| 2 | Save your accommodation's Chinese name and address where you can reach it offline | It is the one document that gets you back if you are separated from your group | |
| 3 | Ask your accommodation to help with any registration step attached to your stay | Registration is normally part of check-in but the burden is on the traveller | |
| 4 | Write down your onward transport and the date you booked it | Tickets and seats sold in advance are the parts that sell out first around holidays | |
| 5 | Record the local emergency numbers and your own embassy's contact details in writing | Consular help depends on you reaching someone, not on a search working |
Tables 1 and 2 are not same-day tasks. The week before departure is when the sheet earns its keep, because it is the last window in which every row is still fixable cheaply. Re-run Table 1 as a whole, on one date, and overwrite any row whose answer has changed since you first wrote it — entry schemes and transit rules move more often than people expect, and a row confirmed months ago is not a row confirmed now. Then walk Table 2 as a physical exercise, not a reading exercise: install and actually open both payment apps, activate the data option on your own handset for a test session, download the offline map for your arrival city and search your hotel's Chinese name in it, put the medication and its note in the bag you will actually carry. A row is not done when you have read it; it is done when the object or account exists and you have touched it.
Two days before, the remaining work is small and finite: charge everything, photograph your passport and cards and store the copies offline, confirm your first night's accommodation can see your booking, and print or save this file in a place you can reach without internet. On departure day itself, only Table 3 remains — five steps, none of which survive being postponed.
1. Enter the date you checked the item, not the date you first thought about it.
2. If a rule changed since you wrote it down, overwrite the row and record the new date rather than adding a second row.
3. Two sources disagreeing means the row is not finished; go to the official source and note which one you followed.
4. Keep this file with your travel documents. A checklist you cannot find is a checklist you did not complete.
The sheet is deliberately free of destination detail: blank cells contain no rules and no claims, because entry and permit answers depend on your nationality and change often enough that a printed number is a liability. The depth lives in the guides, and each phase of the sheet has a natural companion. Read them in this order: the general preparation guide alongside Table 1, the packing guide alongside Table 2, and the first-timers' overview for the arrival-day rows of Table 3.
Personal planning worksheet; blank cells contain no destination data and no rule claims. Every entry rule must be confirmed against the official source that applies to your nationality and your region, and the date you checked it recorded above.