WASHINGTON (AP) – Foreign tourists are dripping back to China after they relax their visa policies to unprecedented levels. Now, citizens from 74 countries can enter China for up to 30 days without a visa, which is a huge increase over previous regulations.
The government has been steadily expanding visa-free entry to promote tourism, the economy and its soft power. According to the National Immigration Bureau, in 2024, more than 20 million foreign tourists entered without a visa, almost one-third of the total, more than two times the previous year.
“This really helps people travel because applying for a visa and going through the whole process is so cumbersome,” Georgi Shavadze, a Georgian living in Austria, said on a recent visit to paradise in Beijing.
While most tourist attractions still have much more domestic tourists than foreigners, travel companies and tour guides are now in a larger influx for the expected summer vacation to China.
“I was almost overwhelmed and tried to keep up with me,” said Gao Jun, an experienced English-speaking guide with over 20 years of experience. To meet the growing demand, he launched a new business to train anyone interested in becoming an English-speaking guide. “I just can’t handle all of this alone,” he said.
China reopened its borders with tourists in early 2023 after raising tough Covid-19 restrictions, but only 13.8 million people visited that year, less than 31.9 million in 2019, the year before the pandemic.
Many people in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East for 30 days
In December 2023, China announced that it would enter without a visa for citizens of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. Since then, almost all of Europe has been added. Travelers from five Latin American countries and Uzbekistan became eligible last month, followed by four in the Middle East. With the addition of Azerbaijan, the total will grow to 75 on July 16.
About two-thirds of countries have obtained visa-free entry at one year’s trial.
For Norwegian traveler Øystein Sporsheim, this means his family will no longer need to make two round trip visits to the Chinese embassy to apply for a tourist visa, a time-consuming and expensive process with two children. “They don’t open often, so it’s much harder,” he said.
“The new visa policy is 100% good for us,” said Jenny Zhao, managing director of Wildchina. She said the business grew 50% compared to before the pandemic.
Zhao said that while the United States remains their largest source market, accounting for 30% of its current business, European travelers now account for 15-20% of its customers, a sharp increase from 5% before 2019. “We are very optimistic. We hope these benefits will continue,” Zhao said.
Shanghai-based online travel agency Trip.com Group said the visa-free policy has greatly improved the tourism industry. Compared to the same period last year, the first three months of this year, their websites doubled their airlines, hotels and other bookings in China, with 75% of visitors to the visa-free area.
Despite the relatively close relationship between the African continent and China, no major African countries are eligible for visa-free.
North Americans and others can enter 10 days
Those in 10 countries without a visa program have another option: If they set out to a country that is different from the country they come from, they will enter China for up to 10 days. According to the country’s National Immigration Agency, the policy is limited to 60 ports of entry.
The transportation policy applies to 55 countries, but most are also on the 30-day visa-free admission list. It does offer more stringent options for citizens of non-10 countries: Czech Republic, Lithuania, Sweden, Russia, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Indonesia, Canada, the United States, the United States and Mexico.
Except for the UK, Sweden is the only high-income country in Europe that has not made a 30-day list. Since the ruling Communist Party of China, relations with China have been in trouble and sentenced to Swedish book seller Gui Minhai, sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2020. The GUI disappeared from his beachfront residence in Thailand in 2015, but was detained by police in mainland China a few months later.
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Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu and Beijing-based video producer Liu Zheng contributed to the report.
