The National Immigration Administration (NIA) said on Thursday that foreign nationals made 15.89 million visa-free entries from January to August.
The NIA did not give a total for the number of entries during the period but did say that visa-free entries made up roughly two-thirds of international arrivals, suggesting the total was more than 25 million.
State news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday that nationals from Asean countries made more than 9 million trips to China under visa-free arrangements, accounting for the overwhelming majority of the 10.74 million entries by people from those nations.
One of the major developments in this area was the reciprocal visa-free agreement with Malaysia, which came into effect on July 17.
Since then, Malaysian passport holders have made 180,000 trips to China – 150,000 without visas, according to Xinhua.
Russia is expected to be another major source of visa-free arrivals to China.
