China's civil aviation sector has seen a staggering 40-percent rise year on year in the number of inbound passenger trips over the past week after the National Immigration Administration announced last Tuesday to further relax the country's visa-free transit policy, extending the permitted stay for eligible foreign travelers from the original 72 and 144 hours to 240 hours, or 10 days.
Under the updated policy, eligible citizens from 54 countries, including Russia, Brazil, Britain, the United States and Canada, can enter China visa-free when transiting to a third country or region.
The policy adjustment has led to a sharp increase in air ticket bookings by overseas travelers.
According to data from the flight travel app Umetrip, from Dec 17-22, the number of inbound flights of domestic airlines exceeded 4,100, a year-on-year increase of about 33 percent, while the number of inbound passenger trips surpassed 660,000, up nearly 40 percent year on year. Inbound travelers mainly come from Bangkok, Seoul, Tokyo and Osaka.
On multiple online travel booking platforms, the number of domestic flight bookings using non-Chinese passports this year has nearly tripled compared with 2023. More than 10 percent of them are second-time foreign visitors.
In terms of flight bookings, American, Russian, Canadian, South Korean and Australian passport holders were the top five while Malaysian, Japanese and Kazakhstan passport holders showed a significant increase of over 200 percent.
"Compared with before, more second-tier cities have become tourist destinations for foreign tourists, which include Huangshan Mountain, Wuyi Mountain, Zhangjiajie, and Sanya, providing travelers with seamless connections from getting off a plane to entering a scenic area," said Liu Ting, a researcher with the Big-data Research Institute of online travel service provider Qunar.
China's airlines see 40-pct rise in inbound passenger trips thanks to new visa-free transit policy
The second meeting of High-Level Consultation Mechanism on People-to-People and Cultural Exchanges between China and Japan, was held in Beijing on Wednesday, with 10 important agreements reached there.
Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese foreign minister, and Takeshi Iwaya, Japanese minister for foreign affairs, jointly attended the meeting.
The 10 agreement are as follows.
First, the two sides will promote youth exchange visits, and encourage and support study trips between the two countries.
Second, the two sides will deepen cooperation in the field of education, strengthen the exchange of overseas students, and support primary and secondary schools in the two countries to establish sister schools and institutions of higher education to carry out inter-school cooperation.
Third, the two sides will support tourism cooperation and introduce more facilitation measures to promote mutual visits between tourists from the two countries.
Fourth, the two sides will build more bridges for exchanges between sister cities and make good use of mechanisms and platforms such as the China-Japan Governor Forum, the China-Japan-ROK Cultural Exchange Year and the Culture Cities of East Asia to expand friendly exchanges at the local and non-governmental levels.
Fifth, the two sides will strengthen sports exchanges and cooperation, and support each other in hosting major sports events such as the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games and the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in 2026.
Sixth, the two sides will support continued cooperation in film, television, music, publishing, animation, games and other cultural and entertainment industries, exchange visits of high-level art groups, and support the translation and publication of classic works between the two countries.
Seventh, the two sides will strengthen exchanges and cooperation between media and think tanks, play a positive role in bilateral relations, and strive to improve public opinion and the environment for public opinion. The two sides will support exchanges and cooperation in new media and encourage exchanges between positive vibes of the two countries.
Eighth, the two sides will conduct exchanges between women's groups and share experience on promoting the common development of men and women. China invites Japan to attend the Global Leaders' Meeting on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women.
Ninth, the two sides will build the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Kansai, into a platform for exchanges and friendship between the two peoples. China supports Japan in hosting the expo, while Japan welcomes China's participation and will provide assistance in the preparation and operation of the China Pavilion.
Tenth, the two sides will hold the third meeting of China-Japan high-level consultation mechanism on people-to-people and cultural exchanges in Japan in due course.
Noting that next year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, Wang said that the purpose of remembering this history is to draw lessons from it and cherish the hard-won peace.
China hopes and believes that Japan can once again demonstrate its determination for peaceful development and work with China to promote the sound and stable development of China-Japan relations in the spirit of facing history squarely and looking to the future, said Wang.
Iwaya said Japan is willing to work with China to improve the quality of people-to-people exchange projects, deepen exchanges between sister cities and take more measures to facilitate personnel exchanges.
China, Japan reach 10 agreements on people-to-people, cultural exchanges
