China's Immigration Authority Reports Record Passenger Trips in Q1 2025

During the first quarter of 2025, China's National Immigration Administration revealed that immigration authorities processed a total of 163 million passenger trips, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 15.3%. This figure comprises trips made by 80.27 million residents from the Chinese mainland, 65.72 million from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, as well as 17.44 million foreign visitors, the latter experiencing the most significant growth at 33.4%.

Additionally, there were notable increases in cross-border transportation, with 8.495 million vehicles, including a variety of transport options such as planes, trains, ships, and cars, being inspected—a rise of 15.5% compared to the previous year. Lin Yongsheng, a representative from the National Immigration Administration, indicated during a press conference that the administration is committed to enhancing immigration management by promoting more open policies and improving the efficiency of entry and exit processes to facilitate smoother border-crossing experiences.

As of the end of March, approximately 9.215 million foreign nationals had entered China through various ports, representing a 40.2% increase from the same time last year. Out of these, 6.57 million individuals benefited from visa-free entry policies, which constituted 71.3% of all entries. This surge in foreign arrivals is largely attributed to the introduction of the 240-hour visa-free transit policy, which has significantly boosted inbound tourism and travel to China, as noted by Lin.