China’s National Immigration Administration (NIA) has released its first complete snapshot of cross-border flows during the just-ended Mid-Autumn Festival break (25-27 September). Immigration officers nationwide processed 6.709 million entries and exits, an average of 2.236 million a day—16.8 percent higher than the same holiday last year. Mainland residents accounted for 3.206 million trips, while 2.775 million movements were by Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan residents. Foreign nationals made 728 000 crossings, up an impressive 37.7 percent year-on-year. A striking data point is the 247 000 foreigners who entered visa-free, a 32.7 percent jump that underscores the pull of China’s growing unilateral and regional visa-waiver schemes. Since late 2024 Beijing has granted visa-free stays of up to 30 days to citizens of 59 countries, while expanding 72/144-hour transit-waiver zones to 24 provinces. Officials say these measures now cover more than three-quarters of all foreign arrivals. The NIA attributed the smoother flows to “round-the-clock channel activation,” predictive passenger-volume modelling and multilingual volunteer teams at major airports and land crossings. E-gates processed roughly 65 percent of travellers, cutting average queue times for Chinese nationals to under 20 minutes and for foreigners to about 30 minutes at peak. For global mobility managers the numbers signal a sustained rebound in China-bound travel and a more welcoming entry environment ahead of the 10-day National Day “Golden Week” that begins on 1 October. Corporates should prepare for even higher volumes, but can reassure assignees that staffing levels and e-gate capacity have so far kept wait times manageable. Companies whose travellers qualify for the expanding visa-free regimes may find it faster—and cheaper—to use them rather than applying for short-stay business visas.
Source: Xinhua (via China News Service)
