Groups of foreign tourists walk outside Beijing's Palace Museum on July 9, 2024. In the first half of the year, 14.635 million foreigners entered the country through various ports, an increase of 152.7 percent year-on-year, data from the National Immigration Administration showed. Among them, 8.542 million entered the country under visa-free policies. Photo: cnsphoto

In the first quarter of 2025, China's immigration authorities processed 163 million passenger trips, a 15.3 percent increase year-on-year, according to the National Immigration Administration (NIA) on Tuesday.

This total included 80.27 million trips by Chinese mainland residents, 65.72 million by residents of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan island, and 17.44 million by foreign nationals. 

Trips by residents from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan island increased by 11.2 percent, with an increase of 33.4 percent from the foreign visitors, said the administration.

Cross-border transport also rose, with 8.495 million vehicles — including planes, trains, ships and cars — inspected, up 15.5 percent year-on-year.  

Lin Yongsheng, a spokesperson for the NIA, stated at a press conference on Tuesday that the administration will steadily expand institutional openness in immigration management, and introduce more effective entry and exit policies, along with new measures to improve border-crossing convenience. 

Nearly 60 percent of the foreign visitors to China chose to travel across different regions, significantly boosting the inbound tourism market. Since the introduction of the 240-hour visa-free transit policy, the number of international passenger flights has surpassed 100,000, a nearly 10 percent increase from the previous period, according to the NIA.

Tourist destinations like Huangshan Mountain in East China's Anhui Province, Wuyi Mountain in East China's Fujian Province and Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in Central China's Hunan Province saw a 21.6 percent year-on-year rise in foreign visitors, further fueling the global demand for the "China Travel", the NIA said.

As of March 31, a total of 9.215 million inbound trips had been made by foreign visitors through ports nationwide, a 40.2 percent year-on-year increase. Of these, 6.57 million inbound trips were made under visa-free policies, accounting for 71.3 percent of the total. The sharp rise was largely attributed to the implementation of the policy, which has fueled continued growth in inbound tourism, said Lin.

Global Times