Beijing Capital Airport Customs Braces for 390,000 International Travelers Over National Day Week

Beijing Capital International Airport—China’s busiest gateway for international traffic—expects a sharp surge in cross-border passenger volumes as the seven-day National Day holiday (October 1-7) gets underway. Beijing Customs told People’s Daily on October 1 that officers will supervise an estimated 390,000 inbound and outbound passengers and handle more than 1,930 international flights during the week-long “Golden Week.” Popular outbound destinations include Hong Kong, Macao and Seoul, while inbound flows will be driven by overseas Chinese returning home and foreign tourists taking advantage of visa-free schemes. Customs authorities have activated a peak-traffic protocol that adds 20 percent more inspection booths in Terminal 3 and deploys multilingual volunteers in the green-channel area to guide first-time visitors through e-declaration kiosks. Smart lanes equipped with facial-recognition e-gates are now open around the clock for passengers carrying only hand luggage, cutting average clearance time to under 15 seconds. For businesses, the traffic spike is an early stress-test of China’s expanded visa-waiver regime and its newly introduced electronic border-management permits. Companies moving foreign staff into Beijing next week should pre-register duty-free samples online and avoid the October 1-2 morning peak, when flight arrivals are densest. Airport retailers and VAT-refund counters are extending operating hours until 01:00 to meet demand; Alipay and WeChat Pay teams have stationed technicians air-side to troubleshoot foreign card binding—a pain-point cited by many inbound travelers. Logistics firms have also been advised to flag high-value equipment in advance, as random inspections are expected to rise. The Golden Week influx is being closely watched by travel-industry analysts as a barometer of China’s post-pandemic openness. If operations remain smooth, officials are expected to expand the e-gate pilot to second-tier airports before the Lunar New Year travel rush in February 2027.