China’s expansion of visa-free entry to nationals from dozens of countries appears to have yielded substantial results, with tourists arriving in droves from overseas and providing a much-needed boost to the country’s consumption in the first half of the year.
South Korea, Japan, the United States, Thailand and Russia were among the top sources of foreign arrivals, and the city’s Pudong International Airport was top-ranked in the country for overseas traffic with 2.37 million entries.
The national capital of Beijing saw over 840,000 visa-free arrivals – double the figure from the same period last year – out of 1.49 million total entries from abroad.
In the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu, 287,000 entries were made under the visa-free policy in the first half of this year, up 120 per cent from the first six months of 2024.
There are still some bottlenecks to be addressed. If they are … China’s inbound tourism could reach the world’s top tier in 10 or 20 years
