240-hour transit visa-free countries rise to 57

Key points

• The 2026 World Tourism Cooperation and Development Conference was held at the Shougang International Convention and Exhibition Center in Beijing, where the World Tourism City Development Report (2025-2026) was released.
• The report ranked Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong in the top ten global tourism cities, with Beijing fifth, up two places from last year.
• The report assesses 100 tourism cities across six dimensions: city visibility, industry prosperity, city intelligence, tourism safety, economic contribution and visitor satisfaction.
• National Immigration Administration data released in July showed 22.914 million inbound foreign visits in the first half of 2026, up 20.4% year on year.
• Of these, 17.815 million were visa-free entries, up 30.6% year on year.
• From 20 August 2026, Kyrgyz and Vietnamese citizens can use the 240-hour transit visa-free policy and Hainan's 30-day visa-free entry policy to enter China.
• The 240-hour transit visa-free policy now covers 57 countries, and Hainan's 30-day visa-free entry policy covers 61 countries.
• Qunar data showed a marked rise this summer in domestic flight bookings to county-level destinations by non-Chinese passport holders, with foreign visitors checking in at more than 100 counties on the platform.