As we all know, direct flight from the UK to China do not exist. I need to fly to China within the next few weeks. I have read through the advice on this forum and it's all very confusing.

I know I need to have two covid tests (48 and 24 hours) at every layover, so if I have a flight that has a 12 hour layover somewhere (Dubai, for example), this won't work as I won't have time to do two tests, right?

Following that, if I fly from the UK to US to New Zealand to China, I will need two covid tests over 48 hours in the UK, US and New Zealand, right?

My main issue is, I don't mind having two or three (or four!) layovers but, it doesn't matter how long the layover is, as it needs to be at least 48 hours to have enough time to do two tests, right?

Is there anyone going from the UK to China in the future that can advise how they're doing it?

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thank you.

I have no experience, but hypothetically if I was trying to fly UK -> China I would start by looking at flights through Turkey or the Persian Gulf.

What I could suggest is that you decide on an intermediate country between UK and China. You buy a return ticket UK <--> Intermediate Country. And a return ticket Intermediate Country <--> China. You schedule the flights so that you have a 2~3 days layover in Intermediate Country, which enables you to get a PCR test there, before you continue your journey. I don't know about flight schedules, but using an SE Asian country as intermediate seems most convenient to me.

I'm assuming your visa paperwork or passport situation for China entry is already sorted?

First, check the price. Airfares to the mainland are just incredibly high right now (like $10,000 USD for economy ticket from the USA).

Second, have you considered Hong Kong? You'll need to do a one week hotel quarantine (at your expense) but getting to China from HK is a tad easier than locations in the West as HK has the most flights into the Mainland right now. You'll still need a second isolation in China though.

There is a Hong Kong Quarantine Support Group on Facebook that is an EXCELLENT resource on HK and can provide you some information on going to the mainland as well. This is run by expats and they have the 'been there / done that' experience updated daily that really can make things smooth.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2788738214495345