Since China downgraded its COVID-19 management on January 8, the daily average of people passing through entrance and exit points has reached 501,000, up by over 48 percent than before the announcement of COVID policy shift, according to official data on Tuesday.
Lin Yongsheng, spokesperson for the National Immigration Administration, said at a press conference on Tuesday that the current daily average amount is about a quarter of pre-epidemic level.
Opening more than 3,200 windows for immigration document application and 53 ports nationwide, authorities have received an average of 341,000 entry and exit documents per day, up 130 percent before the policy announcement, reaching more than half of pre-epidemic level, the spokesperson said.
On average, it will take less than 30 minutes at entry and exit points at major ports at Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai in South China's Guangdong Province, and Manzhouli of North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Lin noted.
According to the latest data, a total of about 65 million residents from the Chinese mainland entered and exited the country in 2022, about 10 million less than in 2021.
In addition, some 47 million residents from China's Hong Kong and Macao regions and 4.5 million foreign nationals have entered and exited the country in 2022, mounting to a total of 116 million persons entering and exiting China, showing a 12 million decrease compared with that of the previous year.
