What changed
China recorded 192 million cross-border trips in the third quarter of 2026, up 7.9% from a year earlier, according to figures released by the National Immigration Administration on 20 October.
- Mainland residents made 95.96 million trips, up 7.4%.
- Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents made 73.14 million, up 6.4%.
- Foreign nationals made 23.272 million, up 15.6%.
- Visa-free foreign arrivals reached 8.992 million, up 24.1%, and accounted for 77.5% of all foreign arrivals.
The top ten origin countries included Russia, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, the United States, Mongolia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Australia.
Why it matters
The headline is not simply that more people crossed China’s borders. Foreign travel grew about twice as fast as travel by mainland residents, while visa-free arrivals grew faster still. That makes visa-free access the clearest visible feature of the quarter’s international movement.
For travel and hospitality operators, the practical message is straightforward: foreign visitors are becoming a larger part of the cross-border flow, and they are arriving through a channel that does not require a visa. The mix is broad too, spanning neighbouring countries and markets farther afield, including the United States and Australia.
The numbers do not show whether these visitors came mainly for tourism, business, study or transit. They also do not show how the increase was distributed across China. Still, the direction is clear: international movement into China expanded faster than domestic and regional travel, with visa-free arrivals leading the rise.
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