Han Ximin

1824295095@qq.com

SHENZHEN has seen a dramatic increase in foreign traveler traffic this year, according to border inspection authorities.

As of Monday, a total of 2.17 million cross-border trips had been made by foreign travelers for business and tourism through the city’s checkpoints this year, a year-on-year increase of 162.6%, data from the authorities show.

As of Tuedsay, the city’s checkpoints had logged over 100 million traveler trips — three months quicker than in 2023. Those trips accounted for 40% of the country’s total and were equivalent to the level recorded in the same period of 2019.

As of May 29, the number of international passengers at the Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport had surpassed 2 million, doubling the number in the same period last year. Among them, 980,000 were inbound travelers, accounting for 49% of the total. Inbound travelers from countries that benefit from visa-free policies numbered 200,000, nearly 20% of the total, increasing 2.5 times over the same period last year. Most of them came from Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam, and Singapore.

The increase is attributable to the National Immigration Administration’s implementation of measures designed to facilitate the entry of foreign nationals into China and the expansion of the list of countries whose citizens benefit from visa-free entry into China, according to the authorities.

To promote exchanges between Chinese citizens and foreign nationals, China announced last month that it would extend the visa-free policy until Dec. 31, 2025 for citizens of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Malaysia, Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Citizens of these countries who hold normal passports are allowed, without the need of a visa, to enter and stay in China for up to 15 days for business, tourism, visiting relatives and friends, and transit.

In April, the Liantang Checkpoint and the West Kowloon Station of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link were added as entry/exit ports under the 144-hour transit visa exemption policy in Guangdong Province. This move has made Shenzhen a more popular destination for an increasing number of foreigners entering the Chinese mainland. Eleven checkpoints in Shenzhen are included in the 144-hour free-visa transit policy.