Chinese visitors to Vietnam

[dreamon]

Hello! May I ask: How difficult is it for a Chinese citizen to visit Vietnam (for one week)? Do they require a visa, and if yes, can they send it by mail, without a personal visit to the consulate? How quickly is the visa issued, and does it require special documents beyond the passport and some money? I heard that there is some political issue between China and Vietnam - does it create a difficulty for Chinese visitors? How safe is it in, say, Hanoi for a Chinese person? Do many people speak Chinese or English? Anything else to be aware of? Thank you!

[liuzhou]

It is relatively easy. Whether or not a Chinese person needs a visa depends on where they are from. Guangxi residences only need their ID card, for example. The same may apply to other provinces. I don't know. The embassy or consulates will be able to advise. Visas take three days to issue and a personal visit is necessary.

There have been Vietnamese protests against China recently, but Chinese tourists have not been targeted. Little Chinese is spoken. A bit more know English. Older people often know some French.

[Gus]

I just took a weeklong trip to Vietnam with a group that included two Chinese citizens, and they ended up having to go through the same process as me (an American citizen) to get a visa in Beijing. We went to the embassy on a Thursday, filled out one sheet of forms, gave them our passports and 330 RMB (something like that) each, and it was ready for pickup on Monday. The visas were for one month by default.

When we got to Vietnam I think there was one thing at the border that was different for them, like they had to pay 10 RMB for health certification and I didn't.

And there were no problems with China/Vietnam tension, nobody even mentioned it really. They did both get their purses slashed at an open air market, but I'm pretty sure that has nothing to do with them being Chinese. Pro tip, though: if that happens to you and a Chinese passport gets stolen, hang around the police station filling out forms for an hour and someone might return it! That's happened to us, turns out the thief just kept the money and threw the passport on the ground and it got picked up. Our Vietnamese guide said otherwise we'd have to bribe the police with 100RMB to get the forms expedited to be able to get a new passport at the Chinese embassy the next day.