China is adding nine more countries to its short-stay visa-waiver program from November 8, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on November 1.
Passport holders from Slovakia, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein and South Korea can now visit China for 15 days for transit, leisure, business or family reunion visa free. Nationals from some other countries, including Singapore and Thailand, can stay up to 30 days visa-free.
The announcement saw a 65 percent spike in travel bookings by South Korean people to China in the first week. Shandong Airlines, which operates 18 daily flights between airports in Shandong Province and South Korea, told Chinese media that reservations increased by about 20 percent in the five days after the announcement.
Since China introduced a visa-free transit policy for 72 or 144 hours, depending on the arrival gateway, at the end of 2023, there has been a huge influx of foreign visitors. Citizens of 54 countries are eligible for short stays in or around their port of entry if they are in transit to a third country or region.
The latest data from the National Immigration Administration showed that over the past three quarters, China saw a total of 8.19 million foreign entries from abroad, 48.4 percent more than that in the same period of 2023. Among those entries, 4.89 million were through visa-waiver policies, representing a 78.6 percent year-on-year increase.
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