National Immigration Administration: In the first quarter of this year, the number of foreigners coming to China more than tripled compared to the same period in 2023.
On April 18, 2024, the National Immigration Administration held a press conference. According to a spokesman for the National Immigration Administration, the number of foreigners coming to China in the first quarter of this year has more than tripled compared to the same period in 2023. The countries with more foreigners coming to China include both European and American countries such as the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom, as well as countries neighboring ours such as Russia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Mongolia, and Laos, as well as East and Southeast Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. Foreigners come to China most for traveling and tourism, accounting for more than 30%, followed by business, visiting friends and relatives, work, study and so on.
In the first quarter, the State Administration of Immigration launched a series of immigration policies and measures, continuously optimizing the regional visa-free entry, visa-free transit, port visa policy, the implementation of five measures to facilitate the entry of foreigners to China, expanding the visa-free entry of personnel from some countries to Hainan, supporting the construction of cross-strait integration and development of Fujian Demonstration Zone, in the city of Xi'an and Qingdao City, for the issuance of eligible persons to and from Hong Kong and Macao, the “individual travel endorsement”. “It also issued individual travel endorsements for eligible persons in Xi'an and Qingdao, and vigorously upgraded the level of government services in immigration management. A total of 6,357,000 ordinary passports were issued, 24,987,000 visas for documents to and from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, 724,000 Hong Kong and Macao residents' permits for travelling to and from the mainland (mainland) were issued, up 24.1%, 30.5% and 19.9% year-on-year, respectively; a cumulative total of 466,000 visas for aliens were issued, up 1,818,000 year-on-year, and 1,988,000 aliens were admitted to the country without visas, The total number of foreigners' visa documents issued was 466,000, up 118.8% year-on-year, and the number of foreigners entering the country visa-free was 1.988 million, up 266.1% year-on-year.