Beijing sees surging cross-border travel so far this year

BEIJING -- Beijing had recorded more than 7 million border crossings in 2026 as of Sunday morning, representing a year-on-year increase of 13 percent, official data showed.

This year, the number of exits and entries by foreign nationals at Beijing ports had surpassed 2.28 million as of Sunday morning, up 34 percent from the same period of 2025, according to the Beijing General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection.

As of Saturday, about 828,000 foreign arrivals at Beijing ports this year had entered under visa-free or temporary entry permit policies, accounting for over 70 percent of all foreign entrants.

The recent surge in Beijing's inbound tourism is partly attributable to the continuous optimization of visa-free policies. To date, China has introduced unilateral visa-free policies for 50 countries and implemented 240-hour transit visa-free arrangements for 55 countries.

To boost clearance efficiency and deliver better services amid the increasing passenger flow, Beijing has introduced a series of measures, including a one-stop service for issuing temporary entry permits and conducting inspections for people applying for the 240-hour visa-free transit, as well as guidance on visa-free policies and assistance in filling out arrival cards for first-time visitors to China.