Mr. Alexandre, a Portuguese tourist, arrived at the border checkpoint in Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport just after midnight on October 15. He is the first international traveler to arrive in Beijing under China’s new policy of visa-free entry for holders of ordinary passports from Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, and Slovenia from October 15, 2024 to December 31, 2025, a policy China introduced on a trial basis to further boost people-to-people exchanges with other countries.
According to the statistics of the Beijing General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection, more than 30 eligible tourists from the above four countries have been granted visa-free entry from the early hours of October 15 to 17:00 the same day.
Since 2023, China has implemented a unilateral visa-free policy on a trial basis for ordinary passport holders from 15 countries, including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Malaysia, Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Australia, and Poland. As of October 14, Beijing’s ports have recorded 1,759,000 foreign arrivals this year, a year-on-year increase of 154 percent. Among them, 320,000 were visa-free entries from the aforementioned 15 countries.
(Source: Beijing Daily App)
,https://english.beijing.gov.cn/latest/news/202410/t20241022_3925581.html