More than 65 million entry and exit trips were made in China in the first quarter of this year and the number of visas issued to foreigners increased by 40 percent, according to data provided by the National Immigration Administration (NIA), highlighting the country's booming cross-border travel in the post COVID-19 era.
Among the 65 million trips, 32.35 million were made by residents of the Chinese mainland, 29.48 million were made by those from Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan, and 3.226 million were made by foreign nationals, NIA spokesperson Zhang Ning told a press conference on Wednesday.
Since China downgraded the management of COVID-19 on January 8, the number of visas issued to foreigners increased by 40 percent, Zhang noted.
Immigration agencies inspected 4.123 million transportation vessels - 75,000 aircraft, 88,000 ships, 21,000 trains and 3.939 million road vehicles in the period.
The country's immigration agencies issued more than 5.12 million ordinary passports, and 19.14 million entry-exit documents to and from Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan, and accepted 604,000 passes from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents to and from the mainland, Zhang noted.
More than 9,500 people were issued with visas at ports across the country and more than 4,600 foreigners applied for extensions, renewals or reissuance of their visas. More than 186,000 foreigners in China have been issued residence permits, according to the data released by the NIA.
Data from ports all verified increasing willingness to travel after China optimized its COVID-19 response, while the country has seen an influx of travelers from foreign countries since it resumed issuing all types of visas on March 15.
Kunming international airport in Southwest China's Yunnan Province has restored routes to 19 destinations in 13 countries and regions. The flow of inbound and outbound tourists has been steadily increasing, as has the number of Chinese mainland residents participating in group outbound tours.
On Monday, the 100th day since the resumption of customs operations between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, statistics showed that Futian Port in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, has processed more than 7.5 million inbound and outbound passenger trips during the 100 days.
