CHINA’S visa-free transit policy has been eased to allow eligible passport holders from 54 nations a 10-day stay in certain parts of the country’s mainland in a move seen as encouraging more tourism and business travel.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) announced this week that the permitted stay will be extended to 240 hours – up from between 72 and 144 hours – when transiting to a third country.
These latest visa-policy changes come as China continues to encourage foreign visitors, including business event travellers, since lifting Covid restrictions in 2023.
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In May this year, China extended its visa-free policy for short-term visits by citizens of 12 countries to the end of 2025. Research by Oxford Economics showed that this move encouraged a large increase in visitors from Europe.
The visa-free policy had been further extended last month to 38 countries with a stay of up to 30 days for business, tourism, family visits and transiting to a third country.
China’s latests visa-policy change, announced on December 17, covers travellers from 54 countries including Australia, Japan, Russia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.
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Eligible travellers need to be transiting from China to a third country and “can enter China without a visa from any of the 60 open ports in 24 provinces and stay in the specified area for no more than 240 hours”, NIA said in the announcement on its official WeChat account.
China, since reopening its borders in 2023 after three years of self-imposed isolation due to Covid-19, has waived visa requirements for travellers to encourage visitation to the world’s second largest economy.
In November China’s visa-free policy was extended to a total of 38 countries.
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Zha Daojiong, a professor at Peking University’s School of International Studies, told the South China Morning Post that the latest move was a “step in the right direction, as it promotes ‘seeing is believing’ among other societies about life in China today’.”
He added: “The more China is seen as another normal society – similar to others, with its own share of good and bad – the more conducive it is to smoothing over raw feelings about the country.”
Foreigners made 8.2 million inbound trips to China, up 48.8 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2024, Reuters reported. The NIA said in October that more than half of these visits came from the visa-free policy, a rise of 78.6 per cent from the previous year.
