Hint: China made it a lot easier, in the past years, to get tourists into China.
The times when you absolutely needed to get to a consulate/embassy for a visa, are for most up to 6 days visits in transit-hub's a story from the past!
They have for citizen of many countries 24h, 72h, and 144h visa extemtions in place.
(p.ex., 144h available for Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Chengdu, Wuhan, Qingdao, Kunming, Xiamen)
The only requirement aside being from the right countries is:
Flying into China, direct from one country, and flying out, direct, to a third country!
Flying into mainland China, but then flying direct to Hongkong or Macau is allowed too. (which is interesting, too - Tian Tan Buddha, Hongkong ;-)
And b/c of this, in the past 18 month I had twice the chance to fly to Beijing and the Great Wall, plus one time to Shanghai. I had every time a Spark with me.
Jiankou Great Wall Pudong/Shanghai
As a DJI pilot, with genuine DJI Go4 app (at least), there is (afaik) NO WAY, you get around the registration with the CAAC in China.
DJI is, most understandable, fully integrated in this procedure.
Unless in many other countries where you "just" registrate with authorities, DJI will ASK YOU IN THE APP for the registration!
VIA the Simcard (SMS), that was used in the registration process.
Grounded till proven!
I found out about that during my first investigation, how I could legally fly a drone in china.
And where I can do so, with the help of "a" search engine!
(so it is all out there, check for the latest news and changes, please!) https://www.google.de/search?hl= ... er+a+drone+in+china
But first things first:
Before you can register a drone on this page:
(better not to use a google mail address, I suggest ;-)
1.You NEED a China mainland Simcard.
Since the registration process is a real name registration process, which needs YOU, as the Pilot, beeing registered IN China, officially.
That is the main trouble, that "most" people can't register from outside china!
But the easiest, and quickest way to this, is to get a china simcard.
Because they register you with your passport.
It needs 5-10 minutes at the Airport Beijing (p.ex)
(leaving the secure international arrival area of Beijing airport, turning right, just behind the barrier are hotel booking counters.
The first one is selling simcards!)
In Shanghai, a year ago, I couldn't identify a shop in the Airport.
But since I have via my home-sim internet right away after switching on the phone, I collected one on my way to the hotel.
I can imagine, they have now sim cards available in Shanghai Pudong Airport, too.
Will check next time, I go there!
2. To me it seemed, the website https://uas.caac.gov.cn/loginneeds flash!
So a notebook or a flash browser on tabs/phones is needed, to certainly make that work.
I used 2 times the help of very friendly tour counter staff and their computers.
3. YOU need to ask someone for help, the registration page is in chinese
I did have 2 times the help of the very friendly staff, 20-30 minutes of their time
That might be the best way!
Note: It can be a bit tricky, to choose "the right DJI-company in the drop down menue!
Not just for me as a non chinese speaker, there a different options for DJI! I did the trick with checking on Wiki the Native name 大疆创新科技有限公司
And compared that with the dropdown list.
4. DON'T use a google mail adress.
First off all, without a "non-chinese" simcard, google, Facebook, Whatsapp, Line, .... is NOT working (without a vpn!)
But even if VPN or your home simcard (officially!) can bypass that:
I never got the mail with my barcodes the first time, I registered, in my gmail account!
Not sure why, since the site accepted it for registering, but perhaps it did not made it to google?
So, to be safe, Yahoo, most other mailprovider except google, are usable IN/FROM china
The barcodes "needed" to be printed out and sticked on the drone.
5.The registration process is done, with the last click "save", after you get the mail.
Should be ok for 3 years, I read, got told it is for lifetime (of drone?)
6.Ready to proceed the activation with DJI:
Start the drone, start the phone, get GPS, get the message where DJI asked you for the telephone number, you registered with.
Fill in, get an SMS, use the Code in the app, fly your drone after checking on this:
Max height 120m
Max distance VLOS
You should have a insurance!
Don't fly in densely populated areas.
USE COMMON sense!
7.GOOGLE for actuallity!
8.Check the DJI NFZ pages before you go, so that you can plan a bit ahead
9.I suggest to carry not only the batteries (a must), but also the bird in your carry on.
On all my flights with the Spark, with up to 8 batteries, 2 phones, one tablet, notebook, charger, ect.pp, no one ever checked the batteries for the Spark
All they wanted to see, was the powerbank and sometimes the umbrella!
10. One last tip: Google just before departure for the latest info you can find about the wanted flight location!
And check, if there are any changes in the registration process!
This is the first drone strategy for China. As you said in the thread, it is much easier to fly drones in most of China than in other countries. And China has so many beautiful sceneries, which is definitely worth to fly drones to take shots. Your works are awesome and full of creativity. Thanks for sharing.
I have been to China twice ...
but unfortunately without my drone ... China is a great country that I really like, its history, culture, art ,so beautifoul view.. (like your pictures)...
and at the same time projected deeply into the future ... (like DJI)
surely I will back there, and having read this guide ...
I will take with me my Mavic Air ... which more and more becomes the travel drone for me
thanks for this well done guide
Yes!
The drone registration is a "person-registration"
You need to be registered with your ID (Passport)
The Sim card gets registered on your name, with the passport credentials.
Which confirms you identity to CAAC
And you need a China telephone number, to get the text message with the code for the DJI App
This is actually the only way I know off, for a tourist, to go through (with) the online registration process.
Hi all , I have just returned from Shanghai and was unaware of the registration law. I flew my Matic for only 8 minutes successfully without registering. The app did ask for a registration which I tried to register but it would not accept my Australian mobile number now reading this post I know why. However after a refresh of the app and turn on and off on drone I was able to fly? Wouldn’t have if known was illegal but just thought was a requirement for Chinese or for marketing with DJI or something. However my issue is I got the China flag in footprints but now have returned to Aust. and China flag has gone? Does anyone know why? I have had issues with footprint flags as per another post where I got an African continent flag and have never visited that continent or anywhere near it that has also now disappeared ?
Anyone know why my China flag has now gone after being on app for a week? Would it be because didn’t register ? Why was I able to fly on 24/4/19 ?
Right now I would say the flag may come back.
Try installing the go4 new, with syncing all first, deleting cache an such and restoring records afterwards!
I had a flag missing for a couple of weeks, if I remember that right!
I bought my first drone yesterday here in China at an official DJI store.
They activated it at the store for me with my Chinese phone number and now i can fly it.
But when i got home i tried to Register it at the CAAC. When i have filled in all on the registration page and click on the register button it just freezes. Nothing happens after this.
I have tried on phone tablet and computer. Even allowed flash and everything possible in the browser. But it always stop at the same place.
condahlq Posted at 7-25 21:33
I bought my first drone yesterday here in China at an official DJI store.
They activated it at the store for me with my Chinese phone number and now i can fly it.
As I wrote, I never was able to come further on an android, I always needed a pc, with windows!
But I have a question for you:
Did you buy a Mavic Mini?
No registration needed! 249g
So don't bother and go fly!
Because if it is any other DJI, if THEY only activated it (with DJI) but dont register it to the CAAC, the DJI App (at least the Go4 did that) wouldn't let you fly/start >249g drone!
In case you did not buy a Mini:
Did you give them email adress, Passport, got barcodes mailed to your mailaccount?
And did they perhaps set up your Go4/fly, after an text message cam in to your phone?
The App (Go4, have no experience with the fly, in China) will ask for the telefone number, you have registerd the bird to.
The text will get you the code the app need to set the bird free
Have they set up an account with the CAAC?
And not given you the details?
How is China, these days? I would love to check out other parts of the great wall, these days!
S-e-ven Posted at 7-26 02:55
As I wrote, I never was able to come further on an android, I always needed a pc, with windows!
But I have a question for you:
I bought the Air 2.
I tried with pc and windows but the CAAC registering page doesn't go further after i have filled in my data and press register.
At the store they only activated it in the dji fly app. Not to CAAC to my knowledge. At least he didn't ask for my passport number or Email.
I'm living in the middle of a no fly zone, so i haven't even tried if it would lift.
I'm living in Xiamen, southern China and here is life almost back to normal already. Mask need to be worn in public transport and some places still and health code need to be shown.
The problem is still traveling to and from China. To get in you need to be invited and even after that its hard to find a flight that actually is going to come here. Same getting out i have friends that has been stuck here for months. All flights they book are getting cancelled.
Today I tried again at the office and it worked immediately, did exactly the same as home.
I think it might be the slow network at home in the weekends that might have been the problem. Receiving the SMS and everything worked so musch faster today.
From home i tried both chrome and IE but none worked. Flash active in both.
Today I did it with Chrome (flash activated). But i didn't receive any email, tried both my gmail and work adress.
But I didn't need the Email, i could download the code directly from the homepage.
(link between send code and delete drone)
(Don't know why it made 2 registrations with exactly same info and same codes.)
Thanks for the help, now i cant wait to get out and try it!
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