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hence the entry checks leaving the territory for the rest of China) The important thing at the time was whether you needed a re-entry visa. The warning was that Hong Kong being a special zone at the time with no visa requirement。

We visited China about 10 years ago. The process then was rather cumbersome - if I recall。

Tibet required a separate additional entry permit and a guide company to arrange your tour). Chengdu being in the middle of China， we had to send our passports to a travel agency near the Chinese embassy， who then walked them through the visa process. The application seemed to center on things like “are you an employee of a media company or the government?” more than other details. Things might be a bit more complicated in the current political climate， but then we went via Hong Kong. (Even after the repatriation - HK was a separate no-visa-required area， going in and out of neighbouring Chinese areas would require a multiple-entry visa. (Also， but generally it wasn’t too bad. Customs was more of a formality， I suspect you won’t need more than single entry unless you plan a very unusual itinerary. It’s an amazing country with millennia of history that we in the west hear very little about. ，。