China’s National Immigration Administration has released its first comprehensive post-holiday traffic report, and the numbers reveal just how quickly international mobility is returning. During the Mid-Autumn and National Day “golden week” (Oct 1-7), China recorded 15.46 million inbound and outbound movements—an average of 2.21 million crossings every day and 6.7 percent more than the same period in 2025. The surge was part of an even larger travel wave inside the country. According to the Xinhua-compiled ‘Authoritative Data, Watching China’ bulletin, domestic cross-regional passenger trips reached an eye-popping 2.142 billion. Analysts attribute the rebound to pent-up leisure demand, looser visa-free entry rules for 50 nations, and a growing network of wide-body flights linking tier-one hubs with Europe, the Middle East and Oceania. For corporate mobility managers the headline figure is the 505,000 visa-free entries logged during the week—up 9.2 percent year-on-year. Companies sending staff to China for trade fairs such as the 140th Canton Fair or client visits in manufacturing corridors now have more flexibility to use the 15-day and 30-day unilateral visa-waiver schemes rather than navigating the full visa process. At the same time, border authorities emphasised that peak-day volumes hit 2.397 million crossings on 4 October. Travellers experienced longer queues at busy land checkpoints like Shenzhen Bay, underscoring the importance of pre-registration for e-channel services and of allowing additional clearance time when itineraries include tight connections. Looking ahead, immigration officials expect daily crossings to remain above the 2-million mark through the winter aviation season. Multinationals are therefore advised to brief employees on new digital arrival-card requirements and to factor higher demand for air seats and hotels into 2027 budget forecasts.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
