How We Test and Verify
This page explains exactly how the information on this site is produced, checked, and dated. It exists so you can judge the content on its merits rather than taking our word for it.
The short version
- Policy facts come from first-party government sources only — never from other travel blogs.
- We record the source’s own date, not just the date we looked at it.
- When official sources contradict each other, we mark the contradiction rather than silently picking one.
- We never predict policy. “Not announced” is a factual answer. “Probably extended” is not.
- We label opinions, estimates, and unverified numbers as such.
1. How we source policy information
For anything involving visas, entry rules, transit schemes, or fees, we go to the source:
- National Immigration Administration (NIA) — the authority that writes and enforces the rules
- State Council and provincial government English portals
- Chinese embassy and consulate notices in the traveller’s own country
- Chinese Visa Application Service Centres (CVASC) for application procedures and fees
We do not cite other travel blogs as sources for policy facts. If a blog says something and the government also says it, we cite the government. If only a blog says it, we do not publish it as fact — at most we flag it as unconfirmed.
Why the source date matters
Government pages are not always updated consistently. On this site we have found the same agency publishing different figures on pages dated more than a year apart. A page published in June 2025 can still be the top search result in October 2026 while a newer policy page contradicts it.
So we record the publication date of the page we actually read, and we show it to you. When we say “as of 20 August 2026”, that is the date on the document — not the date we happened to open it.
2. What we do when official sources disagree
They do disagree, more often than most guides admit. Our rule:
Flag it. Show both. Say which one governs. Never guess.
A worked example from our own coverage of China’s 240-hour visa-free transit:
| Question | Sources say | What we publish |
|---|---|---|
| How many ports? | NIA policy page: 65. Hainan provincial English site: 60. | Both figures, with NIA governing |
| How many countries? | NIA policy page (Aug 2026): 57. Older NIA news page (Jun 2025) and a municipal FAQ: 55. | 57, with the discrepancy noted |
| When does the 30-day visa-free policy expire? | NIA country list: 50 countries. Extension notice: 45 countries. | The 45-country figure for expiry, and Sweden, the United Kingdom and Canada flagged as unconfirmed |
We would rather tell you that our own sources disagree than present a confident number that turns out to be wrong at the border.
3. What we actually test
Where a claim can be checked by using something, we use it. That means:
- Screenshots of the real interface — the actual app screens, booking flows, and payment steps a foreign visitor sees, not stock illustrations
- Step-by-step procedures followed in order, so we can tell you which step is the one people get stuck on
- Fee and limit figures read off the official page on the date shown, not copied from a summary
- Error paths — what the screen says when verification fails, because that is what people search for at 11pm
We do not claim to have tested what we have not tested. If a section is based on published documentation rather than our own hands-on use, it does not get a screenshot pretending otherwise.
On screenshots
Every screenshot on this site is captioned with what it shows, and where it is a government page, we link the page it came from. Screenshots are taken at 1920×1080 unless stated otherwise.
If a screenshot and the surrounding text disagree, trust the text and tell us. We have already caught one case on this site where our own screenshots showed an earlier version of a policy than the article described. We would rather you flag it than be misled by it.
4. What we refuse to do
| We do not | Why |
|---|---|
| Cite other blogs as sources for policy facts | Second-hand policy information is how errors spread |
| Predict whether a policy will be renewed | It is not knowable, and being wrong has real cost for readers |
| Publish a fee we have not read from a first-party page | Travel fees change without announcement |
| Use stock photos to illustrate steps we did not perform | It implies testing that did not happen |
| Bury affiliate relationships | See our affiliate disclosure |
| Let a commercial partner review or approve editorial content | Payment must never shape the facts |
5. How we date and update pages
- Every policy page carries a “Last updated” date, shown near the top.
- The update date is when the content was last checked against sources — not when it was first written.
- When a policy changes, we update the page the same day we confirm the change. We do not schedule updates for traffic reasons.
- When we correct a factual error, we correct it in place. We do not quietly delete and republish.
6. How we make money, and how that is kept separate
This site earns through affiliate commissions when readers book travel services through our links, and eventually through advertising.
The separation is simple:
- Affiliate and advertising partners have no input into what we write, what we recommend, or which facts we publish.
- A page earns commission on some links and not others. That never determines whether a service appears in a comparison, or how it is ranked.
- Every page with affiliate links carries a disclosure. All advertising is labelled.
If a service is bad, we say so. If we have not tested it, we say that too.
7. Corrections
If you find something wrong — a stale figure, a dead link, a rule that has changed, or a page where the screenshot no longer matches the text — tell us. Corrections are the cheapest form of quality control we have.
We will fix it and date the fix.