Does one need to buy travel/accomadations BEFORE applying for a China tourist visa?

It's been a few years since I got my China visa, but at that time it was required to have proof of flights and accommodations when applying. I don't think this has changed, but I suppose it could have. We hired a company to help us, since we don't live near a Chinese embassy. You could probably reach out to the embassy or such a company to get the absolute correct information.

We did have to provide our full itinerary, including hotels. This was in 2016.

This when a travel agent needs to be used, especially a China specialist.

We were on an alumni affiliation sponsored tour. The tour provider provided an invitation letter. for our visa applications. We used the VisaCentral services that had a relation with the tour provider. The letter of invitation covered the following:

Letter Of Invitation:

To fulfill the Tourist visa invite requirement, you must select one of
the following options:

● A copy of your round trip airline ticket and hotel reservation, or

● A copy of your computer generated tour itinerary displaying your
personal data as well as confirmed and paid flight and hotel
information, or

● A copy of an official letter of invitation from a governmental
agency or individual sponsor. If you obtain a letter of invitation
from an individual sponsor in China, the invitation must include the
following:

❍ Your name, gender, date of birth

❍ Purpose of applicant's visit

❍ Date of arrival and departure

❍ Places to visit, specific names of cities required

❍ Details of your flight itinerary and hotel reservation

❍ State who will bear the cost of the applicant's lodging while in
China

❍ Information on the sponsor: name of the unit, phone number, address,
copy of sponsor's passport or ID

❍ Have company or organizations seal/stamp

If your invitation is from a non-governmental sponsor your letter must
include your job title/occupation, passport number with issue and
expiration date. The relationship of the applicant and sponsor must
also be stated. If the individual inviting you is in China on a work
permit then you must provide a copy of the inviter's residence permit

@Valerie Do you happen to know if accommodations have to be through a hotel, or is AirBNB acceptable?

Here's the VisaCentral China page with the detailed requirements:

https://visacentral.com/china-visa?source=china_destination_homepage

Visa Application Form

You must provide one fully completed copy of the visa application form
found in this kit. The application form must:

Be typed (no handwritten forms will be accepted)

Be printed single-sided

Display your full name as it appears in your passport

Be signed

VisaCentral provides a guide to assist you in completing the
application. To access the guide follow this link:
https://visacentral.com/forms?formname=China Application Guide.pdf or
type the address into your browser.For question 2.7 of the visa
application form indicate the person or company that will be
financially responsible for your stay while in China. If a company
will pay for your expenses, then you must provide a business letter
and an invitation letter that indicates that they will incur the
costs.

If you can't figure it out based on the VisaCentral information list, you need to use a visa service to walk you through the process.

We were on a tour and using hotels so I don't know.

I have used agencies for my Chinese visas twice and also have have gone to the Chinese Consulate in NYC and gotten it myself for another trip, not difficult at all. I needed proof of flights in and out of China and a list of hotel reservations. People were turned away who didn't have have all their reservations with them. I was given a date and time to return, two weeks I think, and paid the fee at that time. Now the visas issued by China to US. Citizens last for ten years which is so helpful. If you live near a Chinese Consulate or the Embassy you will save a lot of money by going there and applying for it yourself.

What docs are required for on arrival time and India visa requirements for china
India Evisa Requirments for China

I just spent 6 months in Shanghai and had our grown son (and grandsons) and daughter visit at separate times. I was working at NYU Shanghai University so they helped us do the visa. But for my kids, I helped with their visas. Technically you need to show a travel itinerary (airline tickets) and hotel accommodations for each day but it seems that people skirt the issue and China doesn't bother with the details. So for example, my kids needed to get their visa applications submitted before they could commit to a specific airline reservation. So they booked a flight to Shanghai and back, but didn't pay for it, reserving it for 24 hours and sent the copy of that along with their visa application. In the end they took a different flight but the visa application was approved. They did a similar thing with the hotel reservations in Beijing and Xian. This seems to be a common thing to do for the visa application since NYU also had me do the same thing on our visa application. Basically if you traveling on your own and not on a tour, then you have to make out a dummy itinerary. I think the government is trying to minimize the number of visitors who travel on their own since it likes to know where everyone is at any moment. Once we got to China, we traveled around on our own with no problems though you always had to show your passport for all plane, train or bus tickets.

My husband and I went to China two years ago and got the visa through an invitation letter from his sister, who is Chinese (my husband is a US citizen now so he had to get a visa just as I did). We did not need any hotel reservations because we said we were staying with her. They asked which cities we would be going to, and we listed a few innocuous ones, and it was clear during our trip that there was no way anyone was going to correllate where we said we were going with where we actually went. When we go again, we are not going to say we're going to Xinjiang even though that will be our main destination because that's a sensitive area and will cause our application to be looked at more closely.

I recommend you use a US-based Chinese visa agency to arrange the visa because they know best what is the minimum needed to get the visa as opposed to what the regulations actually say. We used Feti Travel in Boston's Chinatown and and I would definitely use them again. They were quick and efficient and not overly expensive.