People’s Daily online 11/25/2024 4:09 p.m.
China announced on November 22 the extension of its visa waiver policy to nine more countries, including Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Japan, from the end of this month until the end of of 2025. This measure aims to further facilitate cross-border trade. Other countries mentioned in this experimental measure are Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Estonia and Latvia.
In addition, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a daily press conference, China has decided to further optimize its visa waiver policy, including exchanges and visits in the framework of visa-free entry, and to extend the period of visa-free stay authorized from the current 15 days to 30 days. “Starting from November 30, 2024, ordinary passport holders from 38 visa-free countries, including the nine above-mentioned countries, will be able to enter China without a visa for business, tourism, visiting relatives and friends, exchange visits and transit for a maximum period of 30 days,” he said.
A Swiss tourist poses for a photo in Beijing, capital of China, June 10, 2024. (Ju Huanzong/Xinhua)
According to media reports, half an hour after the announcement, searches for destinations in China on the overseas platforms of online travel agency Ctrip.com jumped, with a 112% increase on the Japanese site. Interest in direct flights from various Japanese cities to Chinese destinations has increased sharply.
Over the past year, China signed mutual visa waiver agreements with six countries, including Singapore, Thailand and Kazakhstan, bringing the number of countries with mutual visa waiver agreements to 25 with China, Tong Xuejun, deputy director general of consular affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, noted at a press conference on November 22, adding that China has reached mutual visa waiver agreements with 157 countries and regions. covering different types of passports.
Since this year, he also clarified, China has also reached agreements with countries such as Brazil and Australia to mutually issue 10-year and 5-year multiple-entry visas, adding that multiple-entry visas five-year certificates were also issued to citizens of Central and Eastern European countries.
In addition, Tong said, China actively participates in the APEC Business Travel Card program to facilitate business travel in the Asia-Pacific region. China has also optimized visa application procedures, including introducing a simplified version of the visa application form and canceling visa appointments, it said.
China, he assured, will provide more conveniences to Chinese and foreign citizens, especially businessmen, to support high-quality development and high-level opening-up.
Official statistics showed that in the third quarter of this year, the inflow of foreign visitors to China reached 8.19 million, an increase of 48.8 percent over the previous year. Of these, approximately 4.885 million trips were made with visa exemption.
(Web editor: Ying Xie, Yishuang Liu)
