Travel Docs - Travel Information Before You Go

Preparation

1.1 Weather and clothing

Ottawa has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: Dfb), with a maximum temperature of 26.5°C in June and a minimum temperature of -14.8°C in January. Winters are very cold. The highest temperature recorded in history is +37.8 °C (100 °F) in summer; the lowest is -36. °C (-32.8 °F) in winter, making Ottawa the second coldest capital city in the world (after Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia).

Ottawa is covered in snow in winter, with an average annual snowfall of 235 cm (93 in). The average night temperature in January is -25 °C, which feels like -40 °C due to wind. Snow usually covers the city from November to April. People do not start outdoor gardening until after Victoria Day each year.

Ottawa's summers are warm, humid, and short. The average maximum temperature in July is 26.5 °C, and temperatures above 30 °C are not uncommon. Because it is close to the river, the humidity is high and it can be extremely hot and humid at times.

1.2 Daily necessities

Most hotels in Canada do not have kettles.

If you want to drink hot water, you need to bring a travel electric kettle or use the coffee machine in the hotel room. (In Canada, the tap water in public places or hotels can be drunk directly, but the hot water from the tap cannot be drunk directly. However, in order to ensure the smooth travel, it is recommended that you drink bottled water during the trip.) Some Canadian hotels are only equipped with a small number of toiletries, so it is recommended that you prepare toothpaste, toothbrushes and other toiletries, towels and slippers. Canada's civilian voltage is 120 volts. Most mobile phones, camera chargers and laptop power supplies can be used directly in Canada, but many low-end electrical appliances cannot be used directly. It is recommended that you confirm the adapter voltage of various electrical appliances before traveling. The style of the two-hole socket in Canada is the same as that in China. As long as the voltage of the electrical appliance is suitable, it can be used directly in Canada. However, the third hole of the three-hole socket in Canada is round, not rectangular as is common in China, so you need to prepare the conversion plug in advance. According to the regulations of the Transportation Security Administration of Canada (TSC), all luggage entering Canadian airports must undergo security checks and ensure that the suitcase is not locked or only uses TSC-certified locks. Otherwise, TSC has the right to force the suitcase to be opened, including by destroying the suitcase. Therefore, we recommend that you do not lock your luggage. If the suitcase does need to be locked, you must choose a lock with the TSC logo.

You need to confirm with the airline as early as possible before traveling whether you need a transit visa for the country of your transfer destination to avoid affecting your itinerary.

Preparation of funds for going abroad

You need to carry a certain amount of cash with you during your trip. Cash and credit cards are still the main payment methods in Canada. It is recommended that when you make an appointment to exchange money at a bank or currency exchange point, you ask the service provider to prepare a certain amount of Canadian dollar change to pay for tips, small commodities, etc. (According to Canadian customs regulations, all cash, traveler's checks and other securities brought to Canada, including foreign currency, if the total value exceeds 10,000 Canadian dollars, must be declared to customs upon entry) Prepare at least one credit card with VISA or Mastercard logo and UnionPay card. At present, many banks in China have issued travel credit cards (multi-currency credit cards). This type of credit card generally enjoys a reduction in currency exchange fees. Banks will also provide customers with a variety of preferential activities. You can apply for this type of credit card at least one and a half months before traveling according to your needs. At present, Beijing Capital Airport (Air China, HNA, Air Canada), Shanghai Pudong Airport (China Eastern Airlines, Air Canada), Guangzhou Baiyun Airport (China Southern Airlines), Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok Airport (Cathay Pacific, Air Canada, Hong Kong Airlines) all provide daily direct flights to and from Los Angeles. In addition, Nanjing, Changsha, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Chengdu, Chongqing, Qingdao, Hangzhou and other cities also have regular direct flights to Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal to Ottawa every week. You can also choose to take flights of Air Canada, Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Korean Air, Asiana Airlines and other airlines, and transfer to Vancouver, Toronto, Tokyo or Seoul.

Tips: If you choose to transfer, it is recommended that the interval between your transfer flights is at least 3 hours to minimize the possibility of you missing the subsequent flight due to the delay of the previous flight. If you choose to transfer abroad, you need to confirm with the airline as early as possible before your trip whether you need a transit visa for the country of transfer to avoid affecting your itinerary.

Flights to Canada

(1) According to the relevant regulations of the Civil Aviation Administration, passengers on international and regional flights departing from airports within China are not allowed to carry more than 100 milliliters (ml) of liquid items on board. Containers containing liquid items should be placed in resealable transparent plastic bags with a maximum container of no more than 1 liter (L), and the plastic bags should be completely sealed. Each passenger is only allowed to carry one transparent plastic bag at a time, and the excess should be checked in. Plastic bags containing liquid items should be subject to separate security checks at the security checkpoint. Purchase receipts for items purchased in the duty-free shops in the terminal or on board should be retained for inspection. Purchased items should be placed in sealed transparent plastic bags and should not be opened by the passenger until the passenger arrives at the final destination and leaves the airport. For specific security inspection rules, please refer to the security inspection instructions in the attachment. (If you need to transfer and your itinerary includes a domestic flight in China, the relevant regulations on liquid items should also meet the domestic security inspection rules)

(2) During the security check, please cooperate with the security inspector's requirements and remove items such as laptops, tablets, power banks, umbrellas, liquids, and all items in your clothing pockets, and take off your coat for separate inspection.

(3) During security checks, avoid wearing clothing, jewelry, or accessories that contain metal. Metal objects may set off an alarm in front of a metal detector.

Pre-flight food precautions:

To avoid dizziness, chest tightness, flatulence, nausea and vomiting, you should pay attention to the following three things when eating before boarding:

Avoid heavy meat and high-protein foods. These foods stay in the stomach for a long time and are difficult to digest. In addition, the digestive fluid is reduced in the air, and the stomach function is weakened, which can easily cause gastrointestinal cramps.

Second, avoid eating a lot of crude fiber foods, such as beer, soda, soybeans, and radishes, which can easily produce gas in the body. As the plane flies higher, the air pressure is lower, which causes bloating in the body and causes chest tightness, abdominal distension, and difficulty breathing. Third, avoid eating too much and boarding the plane on an empty stomach to prevent excessive burden on the stomach and heart and hypoglycemia.

Health precautions during flight:

It is especially important to keep moving during long-distance flights. It is best to get up and walk around every 40 to 50 minutes during the journey, move your feet and exercise your leg muscles. Be sure to drink plenty of water during the journey. Drinking plenty of water can reduce blood concentration and reduce the risk of vascular embolism. In addition, the cabin environment is dry, so drinking more water can also reduce physical discomfort. Wear comfortable clothes. When traveling by air, you should wear loose and easy-to-put-on and easy-to-take-off clothes, and avoid wearing tight clothes with hard fabrics. It is best to prepare a pair of slippers to use on the plane, which will help you relax your whole body. Ensure sleep as much as possible. Because sleeping is the only effective way to overcome jet lag. With enough sleep, jet lag will naturally reverse. Chew gum to relieve ear discomfort. Because the pressure at high altitude can cause ear discomfort, chewing gum will alleviate this symptom and make it less likely to get airsick. In addition, for tinnitus caused by long-distance flights, it can be effectively relieved by bringing small ear plugs. Prepare necessary medicines. If you are a patient who needs to take medication for a long time, please be sure to put all medicines in your carry-on luggage.

How to avoid or reduce motion sickness:

If you have had symptoms of motion sickness in the past, you should take motion sickness pills orally 1 hour before takeoff, or at least half an hour before takeoff. In the air, you should try to do things and activities that can concentrate your attention. Such as chatting, listening to music, etc. It is very important to maintain spatial orientation. Look as far as possible, look at the clouds, mountains, and rivers in the distance, and don't look at the nearby clouds. Once motion sickness occurs, if it is relatively mild, you still should not interrupt the things you concentrate on and your orientation. If it is more serious, you should be quiet and sit still, or lie on your back with your head fixed. The general process from the time the plane arrives in Canada until leaving the airport is: get off the plane and enter the terminal → border inspection → pick up luggage at the baggage carousel → customs inspection → leave the airport

Tips: All contents of the Canadian customs declaration form should be filled in English. We have prepared a sample of the Canadian customs declaration form for you in the travel manual attachment package. If you encounter problems in filling out the Canadian customs declaration form, you can refer to this sample and fill it out truthfully according to your situation. If the declaration form you get is in English, the content and order of the declaration form are exactly the same as the Chinese version. You can refer to the Chinese version of the customs declaration form to fill it out. Please fill in the customs declaration form carefully and truthfully, without omissions or flukes. If you have difficulty filling it out, you can ask someone to help you fill it out.

Border inspection process

Those holding non-immigrant visas should line up in the "Non-Citizen/Resident" line; those holding immigrant visas or Canadian green cards should line up in the "Citizen/Resident" line. When waiting in line, try not to look around, and don't change lines many times, so as not to cause unnecessary misunderstandings to Canadian customs officials. Prepare your passport and customs declaration form in advance. And put the round-trip air ticket itinerary, hotel confirmation, English travel itinerary and other materials in a place where you can easily get them, in case of entry inquiries.

The immigration officer will first check your passport and visa, and then ask you about your purpose of coming to Canada, your stay plan, and the length of your stay. You may be asked to show your return ticket. After the questioning, you will be asked to leave your fingerprints and take a photo. Please follow the immigration officer's instructions to leave fingerprints of your thumbs and the other four fingers of your left and right hands.

After checking the documents, the immigration officer will stamp the customs declaration form and passport and indicate the entry date, stay type code and stay period in Canada on the passport. Generally, the stay period in Canada for B1/B2 visas is six months, but it is not absolute. (Although in most cases the entry stay period approved by B1/B2 visas is six months, it is recommended that you stay in Canada for no more than three months each time to avoid being affected when you go to Canada again)

Canadian Customs

After passing the border inspection and collecting the checked baggage, passengers must also go through customs inspection. Passengers must hand over the customs declaration form stamped during the border inspection to the customs officer and cooperate with the customs officer's request for luggage inspection and other procedures. Canadian Customs sets different entry duty-free limits based on factors such as the identity of the entrant, the country and region of departure, the length of stay abroad, the frequency of departure, the content of the gifts or purchased goods, the country of production of the goods, and the price paid for the purchase of the goods. For non-Canadian residents entering the country, in addition to personal items for personal use, if you will be in the country for more than 72 hours, you can bring in goods or gifts worth 100 Canadian dollars duty-free, and this duty-free treatment is only once every 6 months. If the value of the items brought in exceeds 100 Canadian dollars, they should be declared and taxed. In addition to personal items, any items obtained outside Canada that exceed the personal duty-free limit must be declared.

The contents of the personal declaration include:

• Items purchased abroad and brought in;

• inherited items;

• Items purchased at overseas duty-free shops or duty-free shops on cruise ships or flights;

• a gift or item brought to someone else;

• Items intended for sale or use for commercial purposes.

Please declare the actual price of each item you purchased (including taxes paid, in Canadian dollars). If you don't know the price of the item, you can get an estimate. If you didn't buy it, you can estimate it based on the retail price in the country where you received the item. Please note that even if you have used the items purchased or given as gifts abroad, you still need to declare and pay tax based on the purchase price or the average market price. You need to be aware that duty-free items purchased in duty-free shops, airplanes or ships are only duty-free in the country where the store is located. If the number or amount of duty-free items that an individual can carry exceeds the limit, then you must declare and pay tax, whether you purchase in Canada or abroad.

Tobacco Restrictions:

Each person is exempt from carrying 200 cigarettes. The penalties of the Ontario Tobacco Tax Act are severe. Those who violate the Ontario Tobacco Tax Act will be fined according to the volume of cigarette transactions, and face up to 5 years in prison in terms of criminal offenses. If you are not a Canadian citizen and hold a Maple Leaf Card, your future will be ruined: Canadian immigration law stipulates that once you are sentenced to more than 6 months in prison, you will be directly deported after serving your sentence.

Alcoholic Beverages:

Entrants over the age of 21 may bring 1 liter (33.8 ounces) of alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, liquor) duty-free into the country for personal use only. Any excess will be subject to customs duties and corresponding domestic taxes. Although the law does not stipulate that you can bring in more than the duty-free amount, bringing in a larger amount of alcoholic beverages will give customs reason to suspect that you have commercial intentions. Once customs determines that you have commercial purposes, you must submit a formal application for importing alcoholic beverages and obtain an import license before you can release them. In addition, in addition to the law, you must also comply with the laws of the province where you enter regarding alcoholic beverages. If the laws of the province where you enter are more stringent than the law, customs will give priority to the laws of the province. In general, tobacco and alcohol that meet duty-free treatment can be counted in your duty-free amount like other purchased items, but even if the total price of the tobacco and alcohol you carry does not exceed the duty-free amount, as long as the amount you carry exceeds the prescribed amount, the excess amount will still be subject to customs duties. For example: your duty-free amount is 800 Canadian dollars, and you bring in 3 liters of wine. Although the value of the 3 liters of wine does not exceed the limit of 800 Canadian dollars, the 2 liters that exceed the amount you carry will be subject to customs duties.

The items prohibited and restricted from entry by Canadian Customs mainly include:

1. Food, whether fresh, refrigerated or frozen, air-dried, smoked or fully cooked, is generally prohibited from entering the country. Eggs are also prohibited from being brought into the country. Chinese citizens should be especially careful not to bring in moon cakes, rice dumplings, bacon, smoked meat, sausage, meat floss, dried meat, ham, roast duck and other meat products containing meat or eggs. In addition, most packaged foods can be brought into the country, but all food and agricultural products brought by individuals must be declared.

2. Fruits, vegetables, plants, plant seeds and soil All kinds of fruits, vegetables, plants, plant seeds, plant products and soil are strictly prohibited from entering the country. Anyone carrying the above items, including plant-made straw hats, wood carvings and other handicrafts, must declare them to the customs and accept inspection. Chinese citizens should be careful not to bring in various kinds of fruits, raw peanuts, raw melon seeds and other seed foods.

3. Regarding bringing medication into Canada

Generally speaking, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of Canada does not allow prescription drugs purchased from outside Canada to enter Canada. Only prescription drugs that can be legally prescribed in Canada can be imported for personal use. Canadian customs prohibits the import of narcotic psychotropic drugs such as heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD (a strong hallucinogen), tranquilizers, sleeping pills, stimulants, antidepressants, anti-epileptic drugs and some drugs that are easily abused by criminals; it also prohibits the importation of counterfeit prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs and medical devices by mail or personal carrying, including non-traditional treatment drugs or devices for cancer, AIDS, arthritis or multiple sclerosis. Even if these drugs or devices have a doctor's prescription from another country and are legal in other countries, they cannot be imported as long as they are not approved by the FDA. In addition, some drugs that the federal government allows to be held may be illegal in some provinces. Canadian customs recommends that entrants only carry the necessary amount of drugs for the journey. If the drugs you need to carry contain potentially addictive or narcotic ingredients, be sure to declare all the drugs you carry to the customs officials. Chinese citizens often bring some Chinese medicine or Chinese patent medicine into Canada. We would like to remind you that since Chinese medicine is rarely used in Canada and plant products are prohibited from entering Canada, try not to bring Chinese medicine or Chinese patent medicine products into Canada. Western medicine and Chinese patent medicine are best packed in the original packaging, with Chinese and English instructions or drug ingredient descriptions. For prescription drugs, please bring a doctor's prescription or a doctor's statement that the drug is necessary to ensure your health during travel. Do not bring drugs containing the above-mentioned prohibited or restricted ingredients into Canada.

These Chinese medicines and Chinese patent medicines containing prohibited ingredients include:

• Ephedrine drugs: rhinitis tablets, Chailian oral liquid, Dahuoluo pills, Zhuifeng ointment, compound Chuanbei cough syrup, cold capsules, Jizhi syrup, etc.;

• Strychnine: Dieda Wanhua Oil, Rheumatoid Arthritis Tablets, Bone Spur Capsules, Arthritis Cream, Jingyaokang Capsules, Weierkang Tablets, Yaotongning Capsules; - Morphine: Changweining, Kechuanning, Kesuting, Keke, Xiaoer Zhixieling, etc.;

• Traditional Chinese medicine or Chinese patent medicine containing animal or animal organs, such as scorpions, centipedes, toads, pangolins, leeches, bear gallbladders, tiger bones, snake gallbladders, snake exuviae, cicada exuviae, deer antlers, musk, ox horns, rhinoceros horns, tortoise shells, bird's nests, bezoars, donkey hide gelatin, etc. (For animals that can be used as medicine, please refer to relevant domestic websites). For information on personal entry and imported drugs, please refer to the drug page of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website. If you want to know whether a specific drug can be imported into Canada, please contact the FDA's Division of Import Operations and Policy. You can leave the airport after completing customs inspection.