Immigration bodies handle record 697 million border crossings in 2025

China's national immigration authorities significantly enhanced their service efficiency in 2025, processing a record 697 million border crossings, marking a 14.2 percent increase from the previous year.

According to data announced by the National Immigration Administration on Wednesday, foreign nationals accounted for more than 82 million crossings, a year-on-year rise of 26 percent. Notably, about 30 million foreign nationals entered China visa-free, making up 73 percent of all foreign entries and surging almost 50 percent year-on-year.

Mainland residents recorded 335 million crossings, up 15 percent, while those from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan made nearly 280 million crossings, up 10 percent.

The administration's spokesperson, Lyu Ning, noted that the immigration sector has advanced policy reform and innovation, implementing targeted measures to underpin high-quality development and inject new impetus into the national economy.

To facilitate international exchanges, authorities expanded the pilot program for online travel document applications to 50 cities, with 457,000 successful online applications recorded.

Additionally, Indonesia was added to the list of countries eligible for the 240-hour visa-free transit policy, and five more ports in Guangdong province were designated for the policy, bringing the national total to 65.

Visa-free entry for ASEAN tourist groups to Xishuangbanna in Yunnan province was also launched. In coordination with relevant departments, the administration increased China's unilateral visa-free countries to 48 and mutual visa exemption countries to 29, promoting the increase of countries granting unilateral visa-free access to China to 28.

For cross-border travel between the mainland and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, the administration introduced various facilitation measures to support national and regional development strategies and improve border inspection services.

Lyu noted that while ensuring efficient cross-border travel, these initiatives have fueled the boom of "Travel in China" and "Shop in China", elevating China's image as an open, inclusive, and dynamic country.

Data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that the expanded visa-free policies and optimized tax refund measures have further boosted these campaigns, with sales of tax-refundable goods nearly doubling.

Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, said that China's tourism industry has become more open and inclusive over the past year and throughout the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), making important contributions to the prosperity of the global tourism sector.

China's high-level opening-up policies, covering visas, immigration, port access, tax refunds, and payment facilitation, have significantly improved entry convenience for international travelers.

He described 2025 as a landmark year for China's institutional opening-up in tourism. Thanks to joint efforts by government departments, tourist cities, and tourism enterprises, inbound tourism, particularly foreign arrivals, has exceeded expectations and hit a historic high. China now leads the global tourism market in exchanges with countries along the Belt and Road in Southeast Asia, West Asia, Africa, and Latin America, while tourism exchanges with Europe have almost returned to 2019 levels.

A report released by Chinese online travel platform Ctrip in late December shows that inbound tourism bookings in the first three quarters of 2025 doubled year-on-year, with bookings from visa-free countries jumping by an average of 153 percent.

Looking ahead to the new year and the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), Dai emphasized that China is poised to play a bigger role in global tourism development. More convenient policies on visas, tax refunds, consumption, and payment, coupled with enhanced overseas promotion, improved public services, and a better hospitality environment at tourist destinations, will lay a solid foundation for the sustained growth of China's inbound and outbound tourism markets.

The administration stated that it will continue to expand and deepen high-level opening-up to the outside world, optimize immigration policies, and respond to public demands, with a view to boosting economic and social development through continuous reform and innovation.