China’s visa-free boom picks up steam as entries soar in first half of 2025
Foreign arrivals surge more than 50 per cent as visa measures boost tourist and business travel, immigration officials say
Foreign nationals made 38 million trips in and out of the country, a 30 per cent increase year on year, according to the National Immigration Administration.
“Visa facilitation measures have effectively attracted large numbers of foreign visitors for tourism and business, driving sustained growth in inbound consumption,” administration spokeswoman Lu Ning said.
A previous long-standing policy allowed travellers without a Chinese visa to transit through the country visa-free for up to 24 hours if they held valid travel documents with onwards confirmation to a third country, consistent with international practice.
In the 2010s, Chinese cities such as Xiamen and Kunming introduced 72-hour or 144-hour visa-free transit to attract foreign visitors, though travel was restricted within those individual cities.
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