I just booked a flight to Tokyo from San Francisco for my son and I and wanted to share a tip.
This will be the first trip to Japan for both my son and I. Also, my son has never been to mainland China.
In booking the trip, I found a flight with a 23 hour layover in Beijing on the way there and a 21 hour layover in Beijing on the way home. Both flights arrive in Beijing around 6 pm. Because of the long layover the airline will provide a hotel for both nights. Also, because of the long layover we can get a free 24 hour transit visa in China.
What this does for us is we get a free nights stay in Beijing on both flights, We get a free visa for China. The flights will be broken up with the stay in Beijing. It will also give us a day to get acclimated to the time zone and it gives my son an opportunity to explore China which he may not have again.
Arriving at 6 pm we plan to have dinner and get a good nights sleep. We have most of the day to see Beijing (Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, etc) and get back to the airport for our short flight to Tokyo. On the way home we will do the same except we will go to the Great Wall which is about an hour outside of Beijing.
We could have booked a direct flight but now we get to see a little extra.
So, when traveling a long layover can be a good thing. Take advantage of it and see something you may never have a chance to see in the future.
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