China has implemented a visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from Cyprus, Greece, Portugal, and Slovenia since October 15, 2024 and it will run until December 31, 2025. Prior to this, China had implemented a unilateral visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from 15 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malaysia, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

"China Travel" has maintained its popularity as China broadens its visa-free "circle of friends" and enhances its strategies to facilitate personnel exchanges. The number of foreign tourists traveling to China via Beijing for sightseeing, business conferences, and visiting relatives and friends has increased significantly.

The total number of individuals entering and exiting Beijing (including Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport) during the first three quarters of this year was 13.697 million, with over 1.7 million foreigners. The number of foreigners applying for visa-free entry via Beijing reached 580,000, of which 46,000 were granted 144-hour visa-free transit.

The Beijing General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection has been actively promoting the use of electronic boarding passes by 14 airlines and the application of paperless customs clearance for passengers to enable foreign tourists to experience the convenience of traveling in China upon their first entry. Additionally, the station has been piloting self-service printing of the entry card for foreigners to alleviate the congestion in filling, long queuing, and waiting for inspection, increasing inspection channels and waiting areas at duty sites with large passenger flows to improve customs clearance efficiency, and implementing measures such as dynamic diversion of passengers at border inspection duty sites to facilitate the entry and exit of personnel.

(Source: Beijing Daily)