WashingtonSince China relaxed its visa requirements to previously unheard-of levels, foreign visitors are returning in droves. A significant change from earlier rules is that citizens of 74 countries can now enter China for a maximum of 30 days without a visa.
Visa-free entrance has been gradually increased by the government in an effort to strengthen its soft power, the economy, and tourism. According to the National Immigration Administration, over 20 million international visitors entered the country without a visa in 2024—nearly one-third of the total—and more than doubled from the year before.
A Georgian resident in Austria named Georgi Shavadze recently visited the Temple of Heaven in Beijing and remarked, “This really helps people to travel because it is such a hassle to apply for a visa and go through the process.”
Travel agencies and tour operators are currently preparing for a larger influx in anticipation of summer vacationers visiting China, even if the majority of tourist destinations are still crowded with considerably more domestic visitors than foreign ones.
Gao Jun, a seasoned English-speaking tour guide with more than 20 years of expertise, says, “I’m practically overwhelmed with tours and struggling to keep up.” He started a new company to train people who wanted to work as tour guides in English in order to satisfy the increasing demand. He said, “I just can’t handle them all on my own.”
China reopened its borders to travelers in early 2023 after removing tight COVID-19 restrictions, but only 13.8 million people traveled there that year—less than half of the 31.9 million who traveled there in 2019, the year before the epidemic.
Many people in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East have 30 days.
China said in December 2023 that people of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia would not need a visa to enter the country. Since then, nearly all of Europe has been included. Last month, travelers from Uzbekistan and five Latin American nations were eligible, followed by four Middle Eastern nations. Azerbaijan will be added on July 16th, bringing the total to 75.
For a trial period of one year, about two-thirds of the countries have been allowed admission without a visa.
In order to apply for a tourist visa, Norwegian traveler Ystein Sporsheim and his family would no longer have to make two round-trip trips to the Chinese embassy in Oslo, which would be expensive and time-consuming since they had two kids with them. “It was much harder because they don’t open very often,” he said.
Jenny Zhao, a managing director of WildChina, a company that specializes in boutique and luxury itineraries for foreign tourists, stated that the new visa regulations are completely advantageous to the company. According to her, business has increased by 50% since the pandemic began.
According to Zhao, European tourists now make up 15% to 20% of their clientele, a significant rise from less than 5% prior to 2019. The U.S. still accounts for roughly 30% of their current business, making it their largest source market. We’re very hopeful. “We hope these benefits will continue,” Zhao remarked.
According to Shanghai-based online travel company Trip.com Group, the visa-free regime has greatly increased travel. With 75% of the visitors coming from visa-free areas, their website saw a twofold increase in air, hotel, and other reservations for travel to China in the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year.
Despite Africa’s relatively close links to China, no major African nation is eligible for visa-free admission.
For ten days, North Americans and certain other travelers are permitted entry.
Those from ten nations that are not included by the visa-free program can still enter China for a maximum of ten days if they leave for a different nation. The nation’s National Immigration Administration says the program is restricted to 60 points of entry.
Most of the countries on the 30-day visa-free entrance list are also covered by the transit policy, which is applicable to 55 countries. For citizens of the ten nations that aren’t—the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Sweden, Russia, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Indonesia, Canada, the United States, and Mexico—it does provide a more restrictive choice.
Sweden is the only high-income European nation that did not make the 30-day list, aside from the United Kingdom. Since the ruling Chinese Communist Party in 2020 condemned Swedish book seller Gui Minhai to ten years in prison, ties with China have deteriorated. Gui vanished from his beachfront residence in Thailand in 2015, but he was apprehended by police in mainland China a few months later.
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This report was produced in Beijing by video producer Liu Zheng and writer Ken Moritsugu of the Associated Press.
