Do I need my own hotel reservation for my Chinese visa?

Requirements for France Schengen visa - hotel reservation proof?

• I'll be applying for a tourist France Schengen visa in a couple of months and the requirements are mainly straightforward, I just want to double check a couple of things. 1. A hotel reservation needs to be shown: I will probably make my booking through the Eurostar website, in their hotel search bit, so I assume that when I pay the full amount I will get an email confirmation of my booking. Will this be enough? It says that I need to provide a confirmation directly from the hotel so I don't know if I'm supposed to ask the hotel to send me a receipt via mail or if the email printout stating who will be staying, that they've paid the full amount, hotel address etc. and the dates is enough? 2. Proof of funds - Do I need to show bank statements for any specific period of time or will the most recent ones be enough? Also, they won't cover the period up to the day when I will submit them (I can't get them on short notice, unfortunately, so they'll be a couple of days off) - is that ok? Or can I submit traveller's cheques and not worry about providing bank statements at all? Thank you for your help in advance! :)

• Answer:

  1. Hotel: Normally a booking with a travel agent is all right. You may also consider making your booking directly with the hotel (in some cases it costs the same as with an agent). 2. Bank statements: Just in case, provide bank statements for the most recent couple of months (it is all right that they don't cover the period up to the day when you apply, but the gap should not be more than one month before you apply); a couple of recent paystub/payslips will also help. Do =NOT= send traveller's cheques or any other monetary instruments (they do not guarantee their return).