Trip to China - Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou

[Donbiedron]

Hello. Wanted to share my experience from my vacation in China. Flying from Chicago O'Hare airport to Beijing China and than Shanghai.
No problem at O'Hare, went thru the security with the discharged battery in my carry-on/hand luggage.
I tried calling and emailing Chinese Customs in Beijing numerous times without any luck except an email saying that said that I should declare it at customs.

I did not... Got off the plane and went thru the green gate at the customs no questions asked.
Turned on the drone once we got to the hotel close to downtown Beijing only to find out that there is a HUGE No-Fly Zone on the DJI GO app. BTW Google and google maps are banned in China so I only saw a big red circle above me.

Summer Palace, Forbidden City and Tia'anmen Square are all a No-Fly Zone.

Fortunately when we went to the China Wall I was able to take off✌.
Beautiful pics and vids. Got a lot of attention from the locals (I have no idea what they said) and UNIFORMED officers (police?) which were actually only pointing and smiling.

Flight from Beijing to Shanghai went smooth too, security only wanted me to take the battery out of the backpack and put it in a tray.

Suzhou did not show any No-Fly Zones except for a hospital near my hotel.

Hangzhou also went smooth with only some attention from locals.

The only place where my guide actually said to leave the drone in the backpack was the Financial District in East Shanghai, she said that she heard about someone getting arrested for "spying" with a remote controlled toy...

Going back to US tomorrow (saturday) and will post a couple of pics as soon as I have some time.

Hope someone can benefit from my travel experience.

 

[bharris215]

Thanks for the post and great info. No maps - for future destination adventures, pre cache your imagery!

 

[Albert D]

Looking forward to hearing how it was coming back through customs.

 

[Donbiedron]

✌ On the way back we had a 2h delay... Of course Back in China, Beijing departure I went thru 5!! Security checks and at 2 of them actually had to take the drone out of the backpack and show it to the secutiry officers. They did not even say a word (they do not even know english). Back in the US there was no problem at all, just went thru the green customs gate and out the airport, no questions asked anywhere.

 

[ondesko]

✌ On the way back we had a 2h delay... Of course Back in China, Beijing departure I went thru 5!! Security checks and at 2 of them actually had to take the drone out of the backpack and show it to the secutiry officers. They did not even say a word (they do not even know english). Back in the US there was no problem at all, just went thru the green customs gate and out the airport, no questions asked anywhere.

Nice write up.. I l

Hello. Wanted to share my experience from my vacation in China. Flying from Chicago O'Hare airport to Beijing China and than Shanghai.
No problem at O'Hare, went thru the security with the discharged battery in my carry-on/hand luggage.
I tried calling and emailing Chinese Customs in Beijing numerous times without any luck except an email saying that said that I should declare it at customs.

I did not... Got off the plane and went thru the green gate at the customs no questions asked.
Turned on the drone once we got to the hotel close to downtown Beijing only to find out that there is a HUGE No-Fly Zone on the DJI GO app. BTW Google and google maps are banned in China so I only saw a big red circle above me.

Summer Palace, Forbidden City and Tia'anmen Square are all a No-Fly Zone.

Fortunately when we went to the China Wall I was able to take off✌.
Beautiful pics and vids. Got a lot of attention from the locals (I have no idea what they said) and UNIFORMED officers (police?) which were actually only pointing and smiling.

Flight from Beijing to Shanghai went smooth too, security only wanted me to take the battery out of the backpack and put it in a tray.

Suzhou did not show any No-Fly Zones except for a hospital near my hotel.

Hangzhou also went smooth with only some attention from locals.

The only place where my guide actually said to leave the drone in the backpack was the Financial District in East Shanghai, she said that she heard about someone getting arrested for "spying" with a remote controlled toy...

Going back to US tomorrow (saturday) and will post a couple of pics as soon as I have some time.

Hope someone can benefit from my travel experience.

Nice info.. How many batteries did you have with you? is there a limit of how many packs you can have? I am teaching here in China and going home for Christmas. I purchased my P3P here and will be travelling back to the U.S.

 

[N017RW]

Hello. Wanted to share my experience from my vacation in China. Flying from Chicago O'Hare airport to Beijing China and than Shanghai.
No problem at O'Hare, went thru the security with the discharged battery in my carry-on/hand luggage.
I tried calling and emailing Chinese Customs in Beijing numerous times without any luck except an email saying that said that I should declare it at customs.

I did not... Got off the plane and went thru the green gate at the customs no questions asked.
Turned on the drone once we got to the hotel close to downtown Beijing only to find out that there is a HUGE No-Fly Zone on the DJI GO app. BTW Google and google maps are banned in China so I only saw a big red circle above me.

Summer Palace, Forbidden City and Tia'anmen Square are all a No-Fly Zone.

Fortunately when we went to the China Wall I was able to take off✌.
Beautiful pics and vids. Got a lot of attention from the locals (I have no idea what they said) and UNIFORMED officers (police?) which were actually only pointing and smiling.

Flight from Beijing to Shanghai went smooth too, security only wanted me to take the battery out of the backpack and put it in a tray.

Suzhou did not show any No-Fly Zones except for a hospital near my hotel.

Hangzhou also went smooth with only some attention from locals.

The only place where my guide actually said to leave the drone in the backpack was the Financial District in East Shanghai, she said that she heard about someone getting arrested for "spying" with a remote controlled toy...

Going back to US tomorrow (saturday) and will post a couple of pics as soon as I have some time.

Hope someone can benefit from my travel experience.

IIRC... Tienanmen Square was the first NFZ!

 

[bucefalo]

hello there i'm new to the forum.. i just read your post and thank you for it ! I'm gonna take my mavic pro in my trip in Shanghai and i'll visit Hangzhou and Suzhou as well
in Shanghai did you actually take off? there are some nice park in downtown ( like century park) i believe those would be perfect for a video over the city !
do you have those video online? like youtube? i'd love to take a look !
thank you

 

[42FrankZ]

✌ On the way back we had a 2h delay... Of course Back in China, Beijing departure I went thru 5!! Security checks and at 2 of them actually had to take the drone out of the backpack and show it to the secutiry officers. They did not even say a word (they do not even know english). Back in the US there was no problem at all, just went thru the green customs gate and out the airport, no questions asked anywhere.

Did you know Chinese?

 

[Jianan]

You're lucky man! From the China Custom Regulations, any foreigners is not allowed to bring drones with camera into China, fortunately you didn't declare your drone to the Custom, but be aware, they can take your drone away, and if you are lucky, you can ask them return to you when you left, but it will takes a long time until you missed your flight.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Jianan]

BTW, all the city area in Beijing is NFZ, you can only fly outside the fifth ring road.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[bucefalo]

You're lucky man! From the China Custom Regulations, any foreigners is not allowed to bring drones with camera into China, fortunately you didn't declare your drone to the Custom, but be aware, they can take your drone away, and if you are lucky, you can ask them return to you when you left, but it will takes a long time until you missed your flight.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

Jianan .. please can you tell me more? like where did you get this information? thank you !

 

[Jianan]

I just bought a Mavic Pro last month from China(much cheaper than Canada), and asked my friend in China took it back to me to Canada, I don't want took any trouble to my friend, so I asked a cousin working for Beijing Customs.......


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[genetric]

hello there i'm new to the forum.. i just read your post and thank you for it ! I'm gonna take my mavic pro in my trip in Shanghai and i'll visit Hangzhou and Suzhou as well
in Shanghai did you actually take off? there are some nice park in downtown ( like century park) i believe those would be perfect for a video over the city !
do you have those video online? like youtube? i'd love to take a look !
thank you

You can try to chec k the DJI website DJI - The World Leader in Camera Drones/Quadcopters for Aerial Photography ,"FLY SAFE GEO ZONE MAP"
to verify which is NO fly zone in China ,by entering the region actually they change now most prt of China they are now 3 gigantic RED circle not only only one near the Airport which is the No fly zone before but nowit cover other Park and cities in China ,