I recently accompanied a friend at the Laos border in Mohan and he was told by the staff in uniform that he needed to have his passport stamped at the Laos immigration before re-entering China.
Those were apparently new untrained staff though, with some not knowing if it was possible to exit on the "valid until" date marked on visas.

Well, that makes sense. So they need to walk 200 meters further, buy the visa-on-arrival to Laos, stamp it, turn around and exit. Thats still a turnaround. Bet the Lao officials look damn confused though.

That you actually could turn around there at the middle zone without a proper exit is rare - could anyone do this anywhere else in the world?

It's no advantage to Laos if you dont buy a visa is it?

Borderline turn-arounders may want to know that Vietnam is about to become visa free for a new number of nations. That may solve their 30 USD Lao border headache.

Oops. Apparently this is in effect already. Since July 2015 visitors from Germany, France, the UK, Italy, and Spain can get the 15 day stamp. This policy has been going on for ppl from Nordic cpuntries too.

So if Magnifico Jesus Hose del Napoleon is from UK he can go and taste Vodka Hanoi to Laokai without any hassle.

The China exit and reentry are in different buildings. Just exit and walk to the reentry building and see what they say, cause that's all that matters. If they let you back in, without the Laos stamps, then that's that. Asking the China officials at the exit building is pointless. After exiting wait 30min to an hour. Might take sometime to log your exit into their system.

It was the staff at the Entry building who told him that stamps from Laos were needed.

I may very well give Laos a try, thanks Peter99.

Let's hope it's newbie staff and not policy. If not, it just got 30-42usd more expensive. It still seems weird that they would care. What if Laos didn't let you in for some unforseen reason. China would strand you on that road? Nice enough road though, lots of shrubbery.

@Napoleon. Read his prior post. It's Vietnam he is referring too.

Laokai has a certain Lao taste in the name, but yes, its Vietnam. Across the border of Hekou. If there is a queue at the Vietnamese border, theres a cardbox inside the officers post, and flipping in a 100.000 Dong there, you can pass the queue smoothly. And get a smile too. Good service.