Wednesday, July 10, 2024 Beijing’s border inspection agency recorded nearly 8.3 million entry and exit trips in the first half of this year, a 185% increase compared to the same period last year. This surge is credited to the summer travel season and ongoing adjustments to entry and exit policies, facilitating travel, business, study, work, and living in China.
The 72/144-hour visa-free transit policy, first introduced in 2013, has been expanded to benefit travelers from 54 countries, allowing them to transit through 20 cities, including Beijing and Tianjin, without a visa for up to 144 hours. In the first half of the year, 307,000 foreign travelers entered Beijing without a visa, with 33,700 utilizing the 144-hour visa-free transit, reflecting tenfold and sevenfold increases year on year, respectively. China has also initiated a unilateral visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from countries like Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia.
This July, the policy was extended to Australia, New Zealand, and Poland. As of July 2, nearly 163,000 foreigners from 15 countries have entered China visa-free under this policy. Group tourism in Beijing has rebounded, with over 30,000 tourists visiting in the first half of the year, 30 times the number from the same period last year.
The number of mainland residents traveling through Beijing ports increased by approximately 2.7 times year on year to more than 5.74 million, making up about 70% of the total tra.
