Before I left Hong Kong to Germany in August, I already planned for a return trip back home because I have to be back for my best friend’s wedding as a bridesmaid. It was also nice to know when you could get home again to see friends and family.

Philipp was also excited about it too because he planned to go to Hong Kong with me. We had to wait for his exam dates until we could know when we could fly. We have been looking into possible dates and flights to fly to Hong Kong. Could be via London by BA, via Amsterdam by KLM or Middle East by one of the three big airlines Qatar, Emirates or Etihad. But at the end, we went for Air China.

China. That’s not the first word you want to hear when it comes to safety. Well, I have taken Air China twice before to save money as a student. There wasn’t any safefy issues though. The only problem I had was my flight returned back to Hong Kong after an hour flying en route to Beijing; then I missed my next flight to Madrid (and a game in Bilbao!) and was told to wait for three days until next flight with available seat. At 6am in the morning at the Beijing airport, I had to keep calm and fight for whatever I could. At the end I got a flight to Milan the same afternoon and from Milan I had to book another flight myself, which was later covered by my travel insurance. After 32 hours of “delay”, I was finally in Madrid.

But, I paid less than HK$4,000 (or 400€ at that time, now about 480€), while Cathay Pacific would be asking for at least a double. I could sleep anywhere, no matter in a car, bus, or plane, so being comfortable or not wouldn’t really bother me. I also don’t have space problem; I am looking forward to see how Philipp fits into these small seats designed for Asians.

We decided to fly with Air China this time because of 1) money (440€ return) and 2) stopover in Beijing. Stopover in Beijing means Philipp doesn’t need to go to the Chinese Embassy and pay 100€ for a single entry tourist visa, yet he can still visit Beijing with a 72-hour-transit visa for free.

A transit visa is something that I would recommend to groundhoppers who want to travel to China to watch a game but don’t want to pay for a visa fee. To be eligible for a transit visa, you must only transfer in selected cities in China by flight. The whole flight must be confirmed and checked-in (i.e. with confirmed seat) before applying for a transit visa, which will be done upon arrival. Selected cities include: Beijing, Gangzhou and Chongqin; while Shanghai offers 144-hour-transit visa.

By transit means you have to arrive in China from Country A then go on travelling to Country B within 72 hours, for example, Frankfurt – Beijing – Hong Kong; or Frankfurt – Shanghai – Bangkok. It is NOT eligible if you travel from one country and return to a different city of same country, so Frankfurt – Beijing – München WON’T work, but Frankfurt – Hong Kong – Beijing – München will work.

Passengers also have to enter and leave from the same city, so you also can’t do something like Frankfurt – Beijing – Shanghai – Guangzhou – Hong Kong with a transit visa.

There are quite a few rules to follow with this transit visa but I don’t think I want to explain too much for now. Our trip is only happening next week so I will only write more when we are back in Germany safe in April. If you already can’t wait and want to plan for China, feel free to write us and ask for more details!

Now go back to our big trip- our first few days will be filled with doctor check-ups (for me) and wedding preparation for my friend. We will have two weekends in Hong Kong to watch a lil bit of local football. Philipp was in Hong Kong few months ago during off season, so HK will be his new Länderpunkt.

We also booked a flight to Tokyo with Hong Kong Airlines, which cost us about 180€ per person. Flying within Asia is not as cheap and convenient as in Europe 🙁 We will be visiting the home ground of Kashiwa Reysol, and hopefully FC Tokyo, too.

We will only enter Beijing on our way back. Beijing is not new to me but we are probably going to do some tourist stuff like visiting the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Luckily, Beijing Guoan will play at home during the weekend, aaaaand they will be playing against Shanghai Shenhua! Did you know there are ultras in China too? We’ll tell you more soon!