X2 single entry visa, does airside transit at Beijing count as using my entry?
​
Hey all, hoping someone here has been through this. I'll be applying for an X2 single entry student visa for a semester abroad in Ningbo starting in September.
My plan: on September 8 I fly Madrid to Tokyo with Air China, with a 2 hour layover at Beijing PEK. A few days in Japan, and on September 19 I fly Tokyo to Shanghai, which is where I actually want to use my X2 to head to Ningbo and start the semester.
On Sept 8 I'd stay airside the whole time, never crossing immigration. My understanding is that since I don't cross the immigration desk, no officer even looks at my X2 and the single entry stays untouched for Sept 19. But I want to be 100% sure.
I tried calling the NIA hotline but the agent didn't understand the problem.
Has anyone done exactly this, airside transit at a mainland Chinese airport with an unused single entry X2 visa in their passport, and confirmed it didn't burn the entry?