One year after the start of a move to facilitate travel and connections with the rest of the world, China has once again expanded its visa-free policy. Growing in stages since November 2023, 9 more countries have now been added and the allowed stay has been doubled.
Eight more European countries are included in the latest batch of unilateral visa waivers, together with Japan. They will benefit from the exemptions from 30 November this year until 31 December 2025 when the trial will end for all of the countries added so far.
Besides increasing the number of countries on the list, China is also extending the allowed stay for visa-free travel. Previously limited at 15 days, travellers from the new 9 as well as all the previous countries included in the policy will be able to stay in China for up to 30 days from 30 November.
“In order to further facilitate exchanges between China and foreign countries, China has decided to expand the scope of visa-free countries. Thus, from November 30, 2024 to December 31, 2025, it will implement a visa-free policy on an experimental basis for ordinary passport holders from Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, Malta, Estonia, Latvia and Japan”, said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian.
According to the State Council, this brings the total number of countries included in the scheme to 38, however, until the time of writing, Travel Tomorrow was unable to find a complete list and, based on all the announcements so far, we have only found 37 countries, listed below:
| Visa-exempt countries to China | ||||
| Andorra | Estonia | Italy | Montenegro | Slovakia |
| Australia | Finland | Japan | Netherlands | Slovenia |
| Austria | France | Latvia | New Zealand | South Korea |
| Belgium | Germany | Liechtenstein | North Macedonia | Spain |
| Bulgaria | Greece | Luxembourg | Norway | Switzerland |
| Croatia | Hungary | Malaysia | Poland | |
| Cyprus | Iceland | Malta | Portugal | |
| Denmark | Ireland | Monaco | Romania | |
In November last year, just 5 EU countries (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain) and Malaysia were included in the policy. Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg and Switzerland were added in March 2024. In June, Australia, New Zealand and Poland were included. Norway joined in September and Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Portugal and Slovenia were added later the same month. And, at the beginning of November, Andorra, Finland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovakia and South Korea.
The benefits of the agreements is already noticeable. Fuelled mostly by domestic travel, but with international visitors also steadily increasing, air travel in China is expected to reach record levels this year, with 700 million air trips, Zhiyong Song, head of the Civil Aviation Administration (CAA), said at the Asia Pacific Summit for Aviation Safety in Beijing on 13 August.
In the first half of the year, just domestic flights already accounted for 350 million passengers, a 24% increase compared to last year and 9% over pre-pandemic year 2019, according to the CAA. Although no precise number has been provided for international passengers, the CAA has confirmed the figure has rebounded to 79% of pre-Covid levels.
