Wednesday, July 9, 2025
China’s bold decision to expand visa-free access to dozens of countries has ignited an unprecedented wave of international travel, with South Korea, Japan, the United States, Thailand, Russia, and Indonesia emerging as the top contributors to this historic surge. In the first half of 2025 alone, millions of tourists entered China without a visa, driven by relaxed policies that now allow stays of up to thirty days across major destinations. This strategic shift has triggered Asia’s largest tourism revival since the pandemic, reviving foot traffic in key cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, and the resort island of Hainan. The influx is being fueled not only by ease of entry but also by pent-up demand, improved air connectivity, and China’s renewed appeal as a cultural, economic, and shopping hub. For many of these countries, the new visa-free framework has removed decades-old travel hurdles, turning once-complicated trips into seamless journeys and accelerating cross-border movement throughout the region.
China’s Visa-Free Travel Initiative Gives Boost to Foreign Tourism Rebound Across Key Cities
China is experiencing a spectacular comeback in foreign tourism, facilitated by its broadened visa exemption policy that has opened travel gates for millions in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. During the initial half of 2025, key cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, and Hainan have experienced spectacular growth in entry inflows, which were mainly comprised of visa exemption entries. These statistics reflect a strong comeback in China’s travel sector and signal the country’s renewed push to re-establish itself as a premier travel destination amongst foreigners.
Shanghai Experiences Rapid Growth in Visa-Free Tourism
Shanghai, widely considered China’s financial and cosmopolitan center, became the country’s highest-performing city for overseas travel. During January to June, the metropolis welcomed about two million and six hundred thousand overseas tourists—a remarkable growth of 44.8 percent compared to correspondending last year. Among them, about one million four hundred thousand tourists entered by utilizing China’s newly liberalized visa exemption policy. This indicates a growth of almost three times compared to 2024, which highlights the strong influence of China’s lenient visa regulations.
The primary source markets feeding Shanghai’s international footfall included South Korea, Japan, the United States, Thailand, and Russia. Pudong International Airport, the city’s main international gateway, registered two million three hundred seventy thousand international passengers—making it the busiest airport in China for foreign arrivals during the period.
Beijing Doubles Its Visa-Free Arrivals
Capital city Beijing also recorded a sharp spike in inward travel. Throughout the first half of the year, Beijing accumulated a cumulative one million four hundred ninety thousand overseas travelers. Visa-free entries alone included more than eight hundred forty thousand, double that of their respective year of 2024. Such a spike reflects renewed interest in Beijing’s political, historical, and cultural attraction, more accessible than ever before via simplified entry methods.
Chengdu Experiences Triple-Digit Visa-Free Growth
In western China, Chengdu—the bustling capital of Sichuan province—has also emerged one of China’s largest beneficiaries of China’s relaxed border controls. More than two hundred and eighty-seven thousand foreign visitors took advantage of the visa-free arrangement to head to Chengdu in the first half of the year, a staggering 120 percent increase compared to the corresponding time a year ago. Infamously famous for its cuisine, panda bases, and rich culture, Chengdu has emerged one of the major halts for business and leisure travelers seeking experiences beyond China’s eastern seaborne coastline.
Hainan Island Accelerates Its Push as a Free Trade and Tourism Gateway
Further south, Hainan Island continues to affirm its position as a key hub in China’s tourism renaissance. During January to June, the tropical island province received six hundred sixty-three thousand overseas visitors, registering a year-per-year growth of 48 percent. What’s more, eighty-nine percent of them were via the visa-free channel—emphasizing Hainan’s special status as the only Chinese location that grants 30-day visa-free visits to nationals of fifty-nine nations.
It is also currently undergoing a makeover to become China’s biggest free trade port, a strategic development that has boosted its economic and tourism significance. Its free entry policy has also allowed it to lure not just tourists but investors, entrepreneurs, and border shoppers worldwide.
Prospects of Sri Lanka’s and China’s Return to Normalcy
With major cities experiencing strong inward travel gains, China’s broader travel situation is gradually returning to pre pandemic levels. International arrivals during the first months of 2025 currently stand at roughly 70 to 80 percent of their earlier, pre travel ban levels, which were when restrictions began initially in early 2020. Full recovery by year’s end now appears likely on current trend.
China’s government began to relax visa restrictions towards the close of 2023 as part of a wider effort to restore international tourism popularity. Citizens of other countries all around Europe and Asia were permitted to enter in sans-visa and remained for a maximum thirty-day stay within most regions. This regulatory shift proved extremely necessary after nearly three years of stringent pandemic restrictions that had more or less halted inward tourism.
Special entry programs have also increased their rollout. Passengers originating in certain nations are now granted visa-free transit visits of ten days or less, if they are entering via one of sixty international ports dotted throughout the mainland. Indonesia most recently joined this roster.
Future Strategy Ahead
China’s government is taking advantage of such promising trends to set more ambitious long-term goals. Experts are convinced that China will have the potential to become a top international destination for individual travelers and group travelers in one or two decades, but more efforts are needed to remove lingering constraints, such as increasing English-language amenities, streamlining customs clearance, and enhancing international traveler experiences across less-developed regions.
China’s extended visa-free entry policy has prompted a tremendous tourism renaissance, with millions streaming in from South Korea, Japan, America, Thailand, Russia, and Indonesia as key cities re-open to hassle-free travel and rekindled international demand. As visa restrictions ease and global confidence in travel returns, China’s bet on openness is already paying dividends. Its cities are once again bustling with tourists, its airports are regaining traffic, and its hospitality sector is seeing fresh vitality—marking a strong comeback for one of the world’s most influential tourism economies.
