Visa-free trips to China double in 2024

The number of inbound trips made by foreigners to China under the country's visa-free policies in 2024 doubled compared with the previous year, indicating that China's expanded visa-free policies and related gestures promoting greater openness to the world are delivering benefits and gaining recognition from travelers globally.

Border inspection agencies across China handled 64.88 million cross-border trips by foreigners in 2024, up 82.9 percent from a year earlier. Among them, more than 20 million inbound trips by foreigners were made visa-free, a year-on-year increase of 112.3 percent, according to statistics released by the National Immigration Administration on Tuesday.

This data showed that China recorded 610 million entries and exits in 2024 – representing an increase of 43.9 percent from the 2023 figure.

In 2024, about 2.6 million Chinese visas were issued for foreigners, up 52.3 percent year on year, the administration's data revealed. Relevant authorities also provided greater convenience for 72,000 foreign nationals in terms of visa extension, renewal and reissuing in China.

Services for Chinese mainland residents keen to travel overseas have also been streamlined. In 2024, nearly 23.32 million passports were issued to Chinese citizens – an annual increase of 26.5 percent. In addition, over 94.5 million permits or documents were issued to mainland residents for travel to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macau Special Administrative Region and Taiwan region last year, marking a jump of 9.8 percent compared to 2023.

Last year, a total of 291 million cross-border trips were made by mainland residents, a year-on-year increase of 41.3 percent.

Meanwhile, mainland ports recorded 254 million cross-border trips made by Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan residents last year, up 38.8 percent year on year.

Immigration authorities also targeted crimes that sought to undermine border management, handling more than 35,000 cases and capturing over 79,000 suspects, according to the NIA.

Notably, relevant authorities busted nearly 500 drug-related cases, 105 of which involved narcotics weighing at least 10 kg – arresting 653 people and seizing about 7.8 tons of narcotics.

In 2024, China introduced a series of new visa-free entry and transit policies, providing foreign nationals with greater convenience to visit the country and demonstrating its unswerving determination and commitment to opening-up.

The latest moves include an extended visa-free entry policy introduced in November last year to allow ordinary passport holders from 38 countries to visit China for a maximum of 30 days without applying for a visa.

In the following month, China announced a relaxation of the visa-free transit policy, extending the permitted stay for eligible foreign travelers to 240 hours from the previous periods of either 72 hours or 144 hours.

During this year's New Year holiday, China saw over 1.8 million cross-border trips, which marked a 13.7 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Among them, 185,000 were made by foreign travelers, representing a 33.6 percent year-on-year rise.

A report released by Chinese online travel agency Ctrip showed that the outbound travel search index for this year's Spring Festival holiday increased by 51 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, the volume of travel bookings from foreign tourists to China grew by 203 percent compared to the same period during last year's Chinese New Year.