A broader and deeper "China travel"! China's transit visa exemption policy is compreh

With the landing of flight SU204, Beijing Daxing International Airport welcomed the 53,000th foreign passenger with visa-free transit in 2024. After learning about the latest visa-free transit policy, Russian passengers Igor and Marina couldn't wait to plan a new itinerary.

"This time, I have 10 days to have a more enjoyable and in-depth understanding of China. I plan to visit the Hanging Temple in "Black Myth: Wukong". It has been suspended in the air for more than 1,500 years. It's amazing..." As he spoke, Igor had already searched for train tickets from Beijing to Datong.

On December 17, the National Immigration Administration announced that from now on, the stay time of foreigners with visa-free transit in the country will be extended from the original 72 hours and 144 hours to 240 hours (10 days), and 21 ports will be added to 60 ports for entry and exit of transit visa-free personnel. Foreigners with visa-free transit can travel across provinces in 24 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) wher stay and activity areas are allowed.

A wider range, a wider field, and a deeper level! The latest transit visa exemption policy has further enhanced its attractiveness and value, demonstrating China's open attitude.

Zhang Jianping, deputy director of the Academic Committee of the International Trade and Economic Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, believes that the comprehensive relaxation and optimization of the transit visa exemption policy is the most open and convenient policy in promoting international personnel exchanges since the reform and opening up, which fully reflects China's determination and confidence to increase institutional opening in key areas.

Since the implementation of the transit visa exemption policy, more and more foreign friends have come to China for sightseeing, investment negotiations, and visiting relatives and friends, praising China's achievements in modernization development. The media traffic with the theme of "China Travel" has exceeded 1 billion on the international Internet. On the basis of "Meet China" for 144 hours, more than 80% of foreign tourists left before the deadline, and many people hope to have more time and travel to more places.

Mao Xu, deputy director of the National Immigration Administration, said that the National Immigration Administration has further relaxed and optimized the transit visa exemption policy by comprehensively considering factors such as cultural tourism resources, transportation infrastructure, foreigners' inbound tourism needs, and supporting management service guarantee mechanisms, so as to facilitate transit foreigners to better appreciate the beauty of China, experience Chinese culture, and feel the open, inclusive, and real three-dimensional China.

10 days, in-depth travel is expected. "This is so cool. I can have more time to play in China and appreciate the beauty of China and oriental culture." Taylor Ethan and Catherine Elise Scherer from the United States can't wait to share the good news with relatives and friends. They just finished their trip to Hong Kong and transited in Beijing, so they decided to go to Jingdezhen, "I have always been interested in Chinese porcelain."

60 ports, go further. The number of ports applicable to the policy has increased from 39 to 60, an increase of 54%. The scope of activities of foreigners with transit visa exemption in China has been further expanded, better serving major regional development strategies such as the rise of the central region and the development of the western region, and helping to form a comprehensive opening-up pattern of land-sea linkage, domestic and foreign linkage, and east-west two-way mutual assistance.

24 provinces, come and go freely. The biggest feature of this policy adjustment is that it allows cross-provincial travel. "It is convenient for foreigners to plan their itineraries reasonably, arrange travel routes flexibly, and carry out tourism, business and other activities across multiple provinces; it can also radiate and drive more places to share tourism resources, form scale effects, improve the level of openness, develop an export-oriented economy, and further release the dividends of the visa-free policy." Liu Jia, deputy director of the Foreigners Management Department of the National Immigration Administration, said.

According to Tongcheng Travel data, within one hour of the announcement of the latest transit visa-free policy, the search popularity of overseas tourists for domestic hotels and inbound air tickets increased by 87% compared with the same period of the previous day. The New Year is very attractive to foreign tourists, and the popularity of overseas tourists booking hotels around New Year's Day has increased by more than 5 times compared with the same period of the previous day.

In order to ensure the implementation of the policy, the National Immigration Administration has opened additional inspection channels, provided multilingual services, and enabled the new version of border inspection site signs to improve the convenience of passengers entering the country; together with the commerce, culture and tourism, the People's Bank of China and other departments, it has unblocked "eating, accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping, and entertainment" to improve the convenience of passengers' lives.

As of 13:00 on the 17th, the number of temporary entry permits accepted and issued by the Beijing Daxing Airport Border Inspection Station was 3.97 times that of the same period last year. In order to facilitate passengers to pass customs quickly and efficiently, the Daxing Airport Border Inspection Station has set up a 240-hour temporary entry permit application area at the entry site.

At present, China has achieved full mutual exemption with 25 countries, tried unilateral visa-free policies with 38 countries, and implemented transit visa-free policies with 54 countries. After this relaxation and optimization, the transit visa-free policy will effectively coordinate and complement each other with regional visa-free, unilateral visa-free, and mutual visa-free policies, and better serve high-level opening and high-quality development.

According to the latest statistics, from January to November 2024, 29.218 million foreigners entered the country through ports across the country, an increase of 86.2% year-on-year; of which 17.446 million entered through visa-free, an increase of 123.3% year-on-year. The number of foreigners coming to China under the 72/144-hour transit visa-free policy increased by 132.9% year-on-year.

At the press conference held on the 17th, relevant ministries and commissions deployed the next step of opening measures.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism will continue to guide local governments to strengthen regional linkage, take major port cities as hubs, connect node cities, combine points, lines and surfaces, and plan to launch more high-quality tourism products and boutique routes.

The Ministry of Commerce will promote the introduction of policies and measures to support the cultivation and construction of international consumer center cities, optimize the inbound consumption environment, improve the quality of consumer supply, and attract more foreigners to China.

The National Immigration Administration will focus on serving to promote high-level opening and high-quality development, continue to optimize the transit visa-free policy, steadily expand institutional opening, and continuously release the dividends of the visa-free policy, and welcome more foreign friends to come to China and experience the beauty of China in person.