China

By plane

The main international gateways to mainland China are Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Almost every sizable city will have an international airport, but options are usually limited to flights from Hong Kong, neighbouring countries such as South Korea and Japan, and sometimes Southeast Asia.

While many major airlines now fly to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, budget seats are often scarce. For good offers, book as early as possible. Tickets are particularly expensive or hard to come by at the beginning or end of summer when Chinese students abroad return home or fly back to their universities around the world. As with other travel in China, tickets can be difficult to get and will be expensive around Chinese New Year.

If you live in a city with a sizable overseas Chinese community such as Toronto, San Francisco, Sydney or London, check for cheap flights with someone in that community or visit travel agencies operated by Chinese. Sometimes flights advertised only in Chinese newspapers or travel agencies cost significantly less than posted fares in English. However if you go and ask, you can get the same discount price.

See also: Discount airlines in Asia

Airlines and Routes

China's carriers are growing rapidly. Airbus estimates the size of China’s passenger aircraft fleet will triple from 1,400 planes in 2009 to 4,200 planes in 2029.

They are also working hard at becoming highly competitive in both service and pricing. Airlines include China Southern (http://www.cs-air.com/en/), China Eastern (http://www.chinaeastern.co.uk/), Air China (http://www.airchina.com.c...), and Hainan Airlines (http://global.hnair.com/).

Fliers may prefer Asian airlines as they generally have more cabin staff and quality service. Hong Kong based Cathay Pacific (http://www.cathaypacific.com) is an obvious possibility. Other candidates include Singapore Airlines (http://www.singaporeair.c...), Japan Airlines (http://www.jal.co.jp/en/), and Garuda Indonesia (http://www.garuda-indones...). Korean Air (http://www.koreanair.com) often has good prices on flights from various places in Asia such as Bangkok via Seoul to North America. Connecting flights may be cheaper than direct flights so keep this in mind. Korean Air also flies to more than a dozen Chinese cities, including Shanghai.

North America: Delta Air Lines (http://www.delta.com) serves Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou through its hub at Narita and directly from Detroit, Boston and Seattle. United (http://www.united.com/) has the most nonstop flights, serving Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai from Chicago, San Francisco, Newark, and Washington. American (http://www.aa.com/homePage.do) flies nonstop to Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong from Chicago. Air Canada (http://www.aircanada.com/) serves Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong from Toronto and Vancouver.

Australia: Qantas (http://www.qantas.com) offers direct flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to Hong Kong. Qantas also flies to Beijing and Shanghai from Sydney but only offers a code-share service to Shanghai from Melbourne. There may be cheaper flights via Southeast Asia; some of the discount airlines there fly to Australia. China Southern Airlines now offers direct flights from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne to Guangzhou with ongoing connections to the major cities.

New Zealand: Air New Zealand (http://www.airnz.co.nz) is the only direct option to Mainland China. They offer direct flights to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Southeast Asia: Singapore has arguably the best connections, due to its large ethnic Chinese population, with flights to all the major cities as well as some regional centers such as Xiamen, Kunming and Shenzhen. Besides Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Manila offer good connections. Tiger Airways (http://www.tigerairways.com), Jetstar (http://www.jetstar.com), Air Asia (http://www.airasia.com), and Cebu Pacific (http://www.cebupacificair.com) offer low-priced flights from Southeast Asia Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Manila to various destinations in southern China, including Xiamen, Jinghong, Guangzhou, Haikou and Macau.

Europe: Most of the major European airlines, including Air France (http://www.airfrance.com/...), British Airways (http://www.britishairways...), and Finnair (http://www.finnair.com/fi...) have direct flights from their hubs to Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai; several fly to Guangzhou as well. A few have links to other Chinese cities. For example KLM (http://www.klm.com/travel...) direct from Amsterdam to Chengdu and Lufthansa (http://www.lufthansa.com/...) flies a Frankfurt to Nanjing route.

Taiwan: Regular direct flights between Taiwan and Mainland China resumed in 2008, after a 59 year ban. There are now daily direct flights between Taipei and major cities in China.

Flights between Europe and China

Airline	From	To	Flight time	Departure Days	Econ Seat P/W	Notes
Finnair	Helsinki HEL	Beijing PEK	7:50	MoTuWeThFrSaSu	32" / 18"
Finnair	Beijing PEK	Helsinki HEL	8:30	MoTuWeThFrSa	32" / 18"
Finnair	Helsinki HEL	Chongqing CKG	8:40	MoWeFrSa	32" / 18"	Service starts May 9, 2012
Finnair	Chongqing CKG	Helsinki HEL	9:25	TuThSaSu	32" / 18"	Service starts May 9, 2012
Finnair	Helsinki HEL	Shanghai PVG	9:05	MoTuWeThFrSaSu	32" / 18"
Finnair	Shanghai PVG	Helsinki HEL	10:15	MoTuWeThFrSaSu	32" / 18"
Hainan Airlines	Berlin TXL	Beijing PEK	9:25	WeFrSu	32" / 19"
Hainan Airlines	Beijing PEK	Berlin TXL	10:20	WeSu	32" / 19"
Hainan Airlines	Budapest BUD	Beijing PEK	9:20	MoFr	32" / 19"
Hainan Airlines	Beijing PEK	Budapest BUD	10:10	MoFr	32" / 19"
Hainan Airlines	Brussels BRU	Beijing PEK	9:40	TuThSaSu	32" / 19"	Also on Fr from Apr2012, Mo from Jul2012
Hainan Airlines	Beijing PEK	Brussels BRU	10:35	TuThSaAu	32" / 19"	Also on Fr from Apr2012, Mo from Jul2012
Hainan Airlines	Brussels BRU	Shanghai PVG			32" / 19"
Hainan Airlines	Shanghai PVG	Brussels BRU			32" / 19"
Hainan Airlines	Zürich ZRH	Beijing PEK	10:00	TuThSu	32" / 19"
Hainan Airlines	Beijing PEK	Zürich ZRH	10:45	TuThSu	32" / 19"
KLM	Amsterdam AMS	Chengdu CTU	9:25		31" / 17.5"
KLM	Chengdu CTU	Amsterdam AMS	10:35		31" / 17.5"
Lufthansa	Frankfurt FRA	Qingdao TAO	13:10	MoWeFr	32" / 17.5"	Stopover in Shenyang
Lufthansa	Qingdao TAO	Frankfurt FRA	14:25	TuThSa	32" / 17.5"	Stopover in Shenyang
Lufthansa	Frankfurt FRA	Shenyang SHE	10:15	MoWeFr	32" / 17.5"
Lufthansa	Shenyang SHE	Frankfurt FRA	11:15	WeFrSu	32" / 17.5"

By train

China can be reached by train from many of its neighboring countries and even all the way from Europe.

Russia & Europe

two lines of the Trans-Siberian Railway Trans-Mongolian and Trans-Manchurian run between Moscow and Beijing, stopping in various other Russian cities, and for the Trans-Mongolian, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Kazakhstan & Central Asia

from Almaty, Kazakhstan, one can travel by rail to Urumqi in the northwestern province of Xinjiang. There are long waits at the border crossing for customs, as well as for changing the wheelbase for the next country's track.

Hong Kong

regular services link mainland China with Hong Kong.

Vietnam

from Nanning in Guangxi province into Vietnam via the Friendship Pass. Services from Kunming have been suspended since 2002.

North Korea

four weekly connections between the North Korean capital Pyongyang and Beijing.