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China extends visa-free entry to more than 70 countries to draw tourists

Published: 08 Jul. 2025, 14:08

Tourists take a selfie at the Temple of Heaven as they take a half-day tour offered by travel agency Trip.com Group in Beijing on June 15. [AP/YONHAP]

Foreign tourists are trickling back to China after the country loosened its visa policy to unprecedented levels. Citizens of 74 countries can now enter China for up to 30 days without a visa, a big jump from previous regulations.

The government has been steadily expanding visa-free entry in a bid to boost tourism, the economy and its soft power. More than 20 million foreign visitors entered without a visa in 2024 — almost one-third of the total and more than double from the previous year, according to the National Immigration Administration.

“This really helps people to travel because it is such a hassle to apply for a visa and go through the process,” Georgi Shavadze, a Georgian living in Austria, said on a recent visit to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.

While most tourist sites are still packed with far more domestic tourists than foreigners, travel companies and tour guides are now bracing for a bigger influx in anticipation of summer holiday goers coming to China.

“I’m practically overwhelmed with tours and struggling to keep up” says Gao Jun, a veteran English-speaking tour guide with more than 20 years of experience. To meet growing demand, he launched a new business to train anyone interested in becoming an English-speaking tour guide. “I just can’t handle them all on my own,” he said.

Tour guide Jim trains a group of tour guides transitioning from Chinese-only to English tours at the Forbidden City in Beijing on June 18. [AP/YONHAP]

After lifting tough Covid-19 restrictions, China reopened its borders to tourists in early 2023, but only 13.8 million people visited in that year, less than half the 31.9 million who did so in 2019 before the pandemic.

In December 2023, China announced visa-free entry for citizens of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. Almost all of Europe has been added since then. Travelers from five Latin American countries and Uzbekistan became eligible last month, followed by four in the Middle East. The total will grow to 75 on July 16 with the addition of Azerbaijan.

About two-thirds of the countries have been granted visa-free entry on a one-year trial basis.

Tour guide Jim holds a paper displaying pictures of Chinese emperors as he trains a group of tour guides transitioning from Chinese-only to English tours at the Forbidden City in Beijing on June 18. [AP/YONHAP]

For Norwegian traveler Oystein Sporsheim, this means his family would no longer need to make two round-trip visits to the Chinese embassy in Oslo to apply for a tourist visa, a time-consuming and costly process with two children in tow. “They don’t very often open, so it was much harder,” he said.

“The new visa policies are 100 percent beneficial to us,” said Jenny Zhao, a managing director of WildChina, which specializes in boutique and luxury routes for international travelers. She said business is up 50 percent compared with before the pandemic.

While the U.S. remains their largest source market, accounting for around 30 percent of their current business, European travelers now make up 15 percent to 20 percent of their clients, a sharp increase from less than 5 percent before 2019, according to Zhao. “We’re quite optimistic.” Zhao said. “We hope these benefits will continue.”

Georgi Shavadze, a Georgian living in Austria, takes a smartphone photo at the Temple of Heaven during a half-day tour by travel agency Trip.com Group in Beijing on June 15. [AP/YONHAP]

Trip.com Group, a Shanghai-based online travel agency, said the visa-free policy has significantly boosted tourism. Air, hotel and other bookings on their website for travel to China doubled in the first three months of this year compared with the same period of last year, with 75 percent of the visitors from visa-free regions.

No major African country is eligible for visa-free entry, despite the continent’s relatively close ties with China.

Those from 10 countries not in the visa-free plan have another option: entering China for up to 10 days if they depart for a different country from the one they came from. The policy is limited to 60 ports of entry, according to the country's National Immigration Administration.

A tour guide chats with a tourist as they tour the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on June 15. [AP/YONHAP]

The transit policy applies to 55 countries, but most are also on the 30-day visa-free entry list. It does offer a more restrictive option for citizens of the 10 countries that aren't: the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Sweden, Russia, Britain, Ukraine, Indonesia, Canada, the United States and Mexico.

Aside from Britain, Sweden is the only high-income European country that didn’t make the 30-day list. Ties with China have frayed since the ruling Chinese Communist Party sentenced a Swedish book seller, Gui Minhai, to prison for 10 years in 2020. Gui disappeared in 2015 from his seaside home in Thailand but turned up months later in police custody in China.

AP