The Bahamas-registered private residential cruise ship MS The World with over 170 passengers and more than 290 crew members docked at Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal in Shanghai on June 28.

This was the first foreign cruise ship to arrive in Shanghai after the National Immigration Administration fully implemented a new visa-free policy for foreign tourist groups entering China by cruise ships in coastal provinces.

Around 9 am, tourists from countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom disembarked one by one and arrived at the immigration inspection hall.

A Filipino passenger said that when he heard that his father would be working on the ship, he decided to come to China with his mother.

The decision to come to China was sudden for him, and at first he was worried about not having enough time to get a visa. However, he later found out that they could apply for visa-free entry by taking the cruise to Shanghai, benefiting from the new policy.

Tourism experts say this will be a boon for tourism.

"We offer carefully designed tour routes and a variety of interactive experiences to let foreign tourists fully experience the blend of history and modernity. They are very interested," said Wang Xu, senior sales manager at the Coastline International Travel Agency (Shanghai), responsible for onshore tours for international cruise ship tourists.

Since the pilot implementation of the 15-day visa-free policy for foreign tourist groups entering Shanghai by cruise ships in October 2016, the city has seen an average annual growth of 10 percent in cruise ship passenger arrivals.

Building on the success of the pilot project, on May 15, the National Immigration Administration decided to extend the visa-free policy for foreign tourist groups entering China by cruise ship to coastal provinces, promoting the intensive development of the cruise ship economy.

The number of cruise ports eligible for visa-free entry has been increased to 13, with the seven additional ports of Dalian, Lianyungang, Wenzhou, Zhoushan, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Beihai now designated as qualifying ports.

The 54-country transit visa-free policy applies to these facilities, making it convenient for foreign tourists to transit to and depart from these ports, according to the National Immigration Administration.

"Before the new policy, passengers arriving by cruise ship had to fill out entry cards, provide biometric fingerprint information and get entry and exit stamps, which was time-consuming," said Shen Jianqing, an official at the Pudong Immigration Station of the Shanghai General Station of Immigration Inspection.

Now, with the visa-free policy for cruise ship passengers and other convenient measures, the inspection procedures have been significantly streamlined, greatly reducing the clearance times for tourists and crew, and improving efficiency, Shen said.

A series of measures have been introduced to facilitate the entry of foreigners into China, including the extension of the 72/144-hour transit visa-free policy, the full implementation of the cruise ship visa-free policy in coastal regions, as well as the relaxation of port visa application requirements, attracting tourists from around the world.

Statistics show that in the first half of the year, the number of foreign visitors entering various ports in China reached more than 14.6 million, a 152.7 percent year-on-year increase.

What's more, the enthusiasm of foreigners to visit China is expected to increase further in the second half of the year, according to an official from the National Immigration Administration.

It is predicted that various cruise ports in China will handle more foreign ships in 2024. Cruise ship operators and travel agencies are also designing more diverse and enticing travel routes to provide better and more varied travel experiences for foreign tourists.

Currently, visa services are available at ports with more international routes and larger volumes of foreign arrivals, covering 100 open ports in 73 cities.

China has said on many occasions that it welcomes more foreign friends to visit, trade, work, study, invest and start businesses in the country.

In the first half of the year, immigration authorities nationwide issued 686,000 port visas, a 267.9 percent year-on-year increase.

Source: people.com.cn