Chinese travellers must hold an approved ETA before flying to Sri Lanka, whether on a group tour or travelling independently. It allows 30 days and two entries on an ordinary passport, and the government charge is waived for Chinese citizens.
30 days
Stay on a tourist ETA
Double
Entries permitted
6 months
Passport validity needed
3 options
Tourist, Business, Transit
100% online
No embassy visit
Important for Chinese citizens
China is included in the 40-country waiver that took effect on 25 May 2026, so Chinese tourists pay no Sri Lankan government charge for an ETA. The ETA must still be approved before travel.
Overview
Sri Lanka has long been a favourite Indian Ocean destination for travellers from China. It is closer than the Maldives feel, offers far more to see, and can be covered comfortably in a week: the coastal railway south of Colombo, the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, the tea hills around Nuwara Eliya, a safari in Yala and whale watching off Mirissa. Buddhist heritage adds a further draw, and the monk Faxian's journey to the island sixteen centuries ago is still remembered on both sides.
Entry is not automatic, however. Sri Lanka requires an Electronic Travel Authorisation from every foreign national, and Chinese citizens must have one approved before they board. On Chinese travel platforms it is normally listed as the Sri Lanka electronic visa. Since 25 May 2026, China has been among the countries whose tourist ETA is issued without a Sri Lankan government charge.
The points that most often cause difficulty for Chinese applicants are practical ones: entering a name in pinyin in the right fields, copying a passport number that mixes letters and digits, paying with a card that works internationally, and receiving the approval email reliably. This page goes through each, along with routes from mainland cities and the best seasons around China's public holidays.
At a glance
Eligibility
Chinese citizens need an ETA for every short visit to Sri Lanka, and joining an organised tour does not change that. Travel agencies frequently handle the application for group members, but the authorisation is individual and is linked to each traveller's own passport. If you booked flights and hotels separately on a platform, nobody has applied on your behalf, and you should do so yourself before leaving for the airport in Shanghai or Guangzhou.
Sightseeing, beach holidays, visiting friends or relatives, Ayurveda and yoga programmes, and attending cultural or sporting events are all covered by the tourist ETA. Wedding and honeymoon photography trips, which bring many young Chinese couples to Galle and the south coast, are ordinary tourism for the couple themselves.
A different category applies to anyone coming for work. Engineers, technicians and managers assigned to construction or infrastructure projects, and anyone taking up employment paid or unpaid, cannot use a tourist ETA. Commercial photographers and crews working for clients fall on the same side of the line. Business meetings, negotiations, conferences and short training courses call for the business option.
The waiver applies to passports of the People's Republic of China. Holders of Hong Kong SAR or Macao SAR passports should select their own passport type in the nationality list when applying and check the price displayed for it, as it may differ. Chinese citizens studying or working abroad, whether in Singapore, Australia or the Gulf, apply with their Chinese passport in exactly the same way as applicants on the mainland.
Stay & validity
The tourist ETA gives Chinese visitors 30 days in Sri Lanka from the date of first arrival, with two entries allowed. Sri Lanka and the Maldives are often sold together in China as a combined itinerary, and the second entry makes that possible: tour the island, fly to Malé, and return to Colombo for the flight home. The return visit is limited to whatever remains of the 30 days.
After approval, the ETA can be used for travel within six months. That is convenient for booking Spring Festival or National Day trips well ahead of the rush. Read the conditions on the approval when it arrives, because those are the terms immigration officers in Colombo will apply.
Your passport must have six months of validity remaining on the day you land. Ordinary Chinese passports are valid for ten years for holders aged 16 and over and for five years for those under 16, so check children's passports in particular. If you renew at the Exit and Entry Administration before travelling, wait for the new passport and apply with its number, since an ETA issued on the old one will not transfer.
Few Chinese holidaymakers need more than 30 days, but long-stay students of Buddhism, retirees and those visiting family members who work in Sri Lanka sometimes do. An extension has to be obtained from the Department of Immigration and Emigration, whose head office is in Battaramulla near Colombo, before the initial period ends. The tourist ETA cannot be used to reside in Sri Lanka through repeated visits.
Pricing
Live fees for Chinese passport holders, shown all-in — any government charge that applies to your passport and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as China
Requirements
Everything Chinese passport holders need before starting an application. The first five items apply to every applicant; the rest are specific to your nationality.
Passport valid for at least six months from the date you arrive in Sri Lanka — the same passport you will travel on
A clear image of the passport bio-data page, with every corner visible and no glare over the photograph
A working email address, which is where the approval is sent and which you should be able to open while travelling
A credit or debit card for online payment
Your intended arrival date and an address in Sri Lanka, such as your first hotel
Simple process
Four steps, entirely online, with one form per traveller and a full review before you pay.
Pick the Tourist, Business or Transit option that matches the real purpose of your trip, and add every traveller in your party to the same application.
Give each traveller's details exactly as printed on the passport, plus the intended arrival date and an address in Sri Lanka. Entries are made in English.
Check every name, date and passport number on the review screen before paying. Corrections are simple at this stage and difficult afterwards.
The approval is linked electronically to your passport number. Keep a copy on your phone and a printout with your travel documents for check-in and arrival.
Most Chinese applications are approved within a day or two, though no particular time is assured. Apply at least three to five days before your flight. Sri Lanka is two and a half hours behind Beijing time, so a request sent late in the Chinese evening is still within the same working day in Colombo.
The two Golden Weeks change the picture. In the days before Spring Festival and the National Day holiday in early October, very large numbers of Chinese travellers apply at once, flights are full and there is no room to rebook. Submit your application two to three weeks before either holiday, and before the Labour Day break in May as well.
If a travel agency is applying for your group, ask for a copy of your own approval and check the pinyin spelling and passport number on it yourself. Independent travellers should save the approval as an image or PDF on their phone and carry a printed copy, since access to some email services is inconsistent when roaming.
On arrival
An approved ETA gets you on the plane. This is what happens once you land, and how to make the arrival as quick as possible.
Bandaranaike International Airport at Katunayake, about 30 kilometres north of Colombo, handles nearly all international arrivals. Follow the signs to immigration and join the foreign passport queue.
The officer retrieves your ETA from the passport number. Have the approval email to hand as a backup, on paper or saved offline, since airport connectivity is not guaranteed.
You may be asked where you are staying, how long for and when you leave. A hotel confirmation and your return ticket answer all three in a few seconds.
Your passport is endorsed with the date you must leave by. Read it at the counter — that date, not the length of your booking, is what counts if your plans change.
Getting there
Direct air links between mainland China and Colombo are concentrated on a handful of cities, with SriLankan Airlines serving Shanghai and Guangzhou, China Eastern flying from Shanghai and Kunming, and Air China from Chengdu. A Beijing service by Beijing Capital Airlines was announced for 2026, and schedules on all of these change with the season, so verify before booking. From other cities the simplest route is one connection through a Chinese hub or through Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok or Hong Kong.
Best time to go
Sri Lanka is two and a half hours behind China all year. Flights from Guangzhou or Chengdu take about as long as a domestic journey from Harbin to Sanya, and there is effectively no jet lag. That makes the island realistic for a seven-day public holiday, provided the season suits the coast you choose.
Spring Festival, in late January or February, falls in the best months for the west and south coasts and the hill country. The seaside train from Colombo to Galle, the beaches at Bentota and Mirissa and the tea estates near Ella are all at their finest then. It is also the busiest week of the year for Chinese arrivals, so hotels and drivers should be reserved well ahead.
The Labour Day holiday at the start of May sits right on the change of season, and Vesak, the most important Buddhist festival, often falls in the same month, with lanterns and free food stalls in every town. During the summer school holidays the south-west is rainy and the east coast is at its best: Trincomalee, Nilaveli and Pasikudah have calm, clear water from May to September.
National Day Golden Week in early October coincides with the inter-monsoon period, when short, heavy showers can occur anywhere on the island. Trips then work best with a flexible plan built around the Cultural Triangle and Kandy. On Poya days, the monthly full-moon holidays, alcohol is not sold, which tour groups planning a banquet should bear in mind.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from China — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Chinese names are written family name first, and applicants often type the full name in that order into a single field or swap the two. Put the surname in the surname field and the given name, as one pinyin word, in the given-name field, matching the passport's data page. Characters cannot be entered at all.
Passport numbers on newer Chinese passports combine the letter E with a further letter and seven digits. Reading a letter as the digit that resembles it, or the reverse, is the most common error. Compare your entry with the machine-readable line at the bottom of the page before paying.
Chinese travellers pay for almost everything by phone at home, and many reach the payment page without an international card. Have a Visa or Mastercard ready, confirm with your bank that overseas online transactions are enabled, and keep the phone linked to the card nearby for the verification code.
In a tour group, each member needs a separate authorisation. Agencies sometimes miss a late addition or enter an old passport number from a previous booking. Ask to see your own approval before departure and check that it shows the passport you are carrying.
Passport number mistyped
The authorisation attaches to the number you enter. One wrong character produces an ETA that does not match the passport handed over at the counter, and a paid application cannot be edited afterwards.
Passport with under six months left
Sri Lanka expects six months of validity counted from the day you arrive, not the day you apply. A passport that falls short is refused at check-in regardless of the ETA.
The wrong ETA type
Attending meetings or a conference on a tourist ETA is outside its conditions. Choose the option that matches what you will actually do in the country.
Conditions
These conditions are set by Sri Lanka's Department of Immigration and Emigration and do not vary by nationality.
Sri Lanka requires an Electronic Travel Authorisation for short visits by all foreign nationals, and it should be approved before you travel. Even where the government charge is waived, the authorisation itself is still required.
The authorisation is recorded against the passport number you enter. If that passport is lost, replaced or renewed before you travel, the ETA does not move across and a new application is needed.
A tourist ETA allows two entries. The stay period runs from your first arrival, so a second entry is granted only the balance of that period rather than a fresh allowance.
A tourist ETA covers holidays, family visits, medical treatment and cultural or sporting events. Business meetings, conferences and short training need the business option, and a stopover of up to two days uses the transit option.
Immigration officers at the port of entry may ask for a confirmed return or onward ticket and evidence that you can support yourself for the length of your stay.
An approved ETA lets you travel to Sri Lanka. The decision to admit you is made by an immigration officer on arrival, and the conditions printed on your approval govern your stay.
Consular services
Sri Lanka maintains an embassy in Beijing and consulates general in Shanghai and Guangzhou. Chinese tourists applying for an ETA do not attend any of them, as the application is submitted online and the result is emailed. The missions deal with matters outside the ETA, such as employment and residence visas for staff assigned to projects in Sri Lanka.
FAQs
The questions Chinese passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes. Chinese citizens must hold an approved Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), which is what Chinese travel sites call the Sri Lanka electronic visa, before they arrive. A tourist ETA allows a 30-day stay and two entries, with no Sri Lankan government charge for Chinese passports.
No, although the cost has changed. From 25 May 2026 Sri Lanka waived its government charge on tourist ETAs for Chinese citizens, yet the ETA remains compulsory. A service fee applies for our help with the application, as set out in the live prices shown on this page.
Up to 30 days from the first entry. A second entry is allowed during that period, for example after a few days in the Maldives, but it does not extend the total. Staying longer requires an extension from the immigration department in Battaramulla.
Use pinyin in capital letters exactly as on your passport. The family name goes in the surname field and the given name, written without a space, goes in the given-name field. Chinese characters are not accepted, and unusual spellings such as LYU must be left unchanged.
Plan to pay with an international Visa or Mastercard. Mobile wallets and cards that work only inside China are generally not suitable for this payment. If your card is dual-currency, make sure your bank has overseas online transactions switched on.
Yes. There is no group authorisation that replaces individual ones. Your agency may submit the applications together, but each traveller receives a separate ETA tied to their passport number. Ask for a copy of yours and check the details.
The application process is the same, but nationality is selected by passport type. Choose Hong Kong SAR or Macao SAR in the list, not mainland China, and check the price shown for that passport, because the government charge is set by nationality.
Two to three weeks before departure is sensible for either holiday. Approvals usually take a day or two, but applications surge before both Golden Weeks and flights cannot easily be changed. The ETA can be used for six months, so applying early costs nothing.
Your nationality is already set to China. Complete the form in around ten minutes, review every detail, and receive your ETA by email.
Other nationalities
Charges, routes and the practical details differ by passport. Here are the guides for other nationalities.
