China’s National Immigration Administration (NIA) released data on Tuesday showing a sharp rise in cross-border travel during the third quarter of 2026, driven by both outbound trips by Chinese nationals and a jump in foreign arrivals using China’s expanding visa-free entry policies, the South China Morning Post reported. The country logged 192 million total border crossings in the July-to-September period, up 7.9% year on year.
Foreign arrivals totalled 11.6 million in the quarter, up 15.6% from a year earlier. Within that figure, visa-free entries rose 24.1% and now account for 77.5% of all foreign arrivals into China — meaning more than three in four foreign visitors entered the country without needing to apply for a visa in advance. The South China Morning Post attributed the increase to Chinese companies expanding overseas alongside Beijing’s continued push to attract foreign tourists through an expanding list of visa-free and visa-on-arrival arrangements. Global Times separately reported the same NIA data under the headline “Visa-free foreign entries rise 24.1% in Q3,” corroborating the figures from an independent outlet.
The figures mark one of the clearest quarterly signals yet that China’s multi-year expansion of unilateral and reciprocal visa-free entry schemes — extended repeatedly since 2023 to cover a growing list of countries — is translating into measurably higher foreign arrival volumes rather than just headline policy announcements. For travelers and residents evaluating how easy entry into China has become, the NIA’s own figures are the most direct benchmark: roughly four out of five foreign arrivals now skip the visa-application step entirely.
References
South China Morning Post – China sees surge in border crossings amid visa-free travel boom / Global Times – Visa-free foreign entries rise 24.1% in Q3 as ‘China Haul’ reflects appeal of Chinese innovation, experiences
