China extends visa-free entry to visitors from 74 countries, aims to boost tourism

In a move aimed at boosting tourist numbers, China has extended visa-free entry to 74 countries, according to AP News.

It is likely to continue adding more countries to the list.

What this means

Under the visa-free pathway, travelers from 74 countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East can enter China and stay for up to 30 days without a visa.

For those not on the list, visa-free travel to China is still possible but only if they are in transit in China.

They can stay for only 10 days, according to China's National Immigration Administration.

This means they will need to depart China for a different country than the one they came from.

The alternative option applies to 10 countries that did not make the 30-day visa-free list: Czech Republic, Lithuania, Sweden, Russia, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Indonesia, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

Of the 74 countries on the visa-free list, about two-thirds are on a one-year trial basis.

Most agreements will expire either end-2025 or mid-2026.

Some countries, such as Thailand, have also reciprocated with visa-free entry for Chinese tourists to their country.

A growing list

The latest additions to the list of visa-free countries were Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain on Jun. 9, 2025, after a tie-strengthening meeting between China and the Middle Eastern governments.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, only three countries could travel to China visa-free, namely Singapore, Japan and Brunei.

These agreements paused when China closed its borders, but have since resumed.

France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia then joined the list in December 2023, the first slate of additions post-Covid.

China has since been steadily extending visa-free entries to more countries, AP News said.

Almost all of Europe is now on the list, but none from North America and Africa have become visa-free yet.

Azerbaijan will soon be added to the list on Jul. 16, 2025, making the total visa-free country count 75.

Reviving the post-Covid economy

The easing of visa policies is in a bid to boost China's tourism economy post-Covid, which saw a sharp decline in foreign tourism.

AP News reported that heavy travel bans imposed by the government during the pandemic resulted in only 13.8 million foreign visitors in 2023 when borders reopened, down from 31.9 million in 2019.

After the Chinese government began increasing the number of visa-free countries at the end of 2023, 20 million visitors entered China without a visa in 2024.

In the first half of 2025, China's financial hub Shanghai saw three times the number of visa-free international visitors than 2024, according to South China Morning Post.

Similarly, capital city Beijing experienced two times the number of visa-free tourists in this same time period.

It appears that the elimination of visa application hassles has contributed greatly to these improvements.

Chinese visas typically require many pages of paperwork and processing days.

According to the Chinese Visa Application Service Centre website, they also cost between S$80 and S$221 for Singaporeans, or higher for other nationalities.

Local tour companies have reportedly also felt the increased pressure of the expanding tourism scene and are anticipating bigger influxes, especially during the summer holidays.

“I’m practically overwhelmed with tours and struggling to keep up,” one local tour guide told AP News.

Top image by Tan Meng Kwang