BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- China has added Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam to its 240-hour visa-free transit program, bringing the total number of countries eligible for this policy to 57, immigration authorities announced on Thursday.

Tourists from Egypt take selfies in front of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests at the Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing, capital of China, July 28, 2026. (Photo: Xinhua)

Effective from Aug. 20, citizens of Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam holding ordinary passports and interline passenger tickets with confirmed dates and itineraries bound for a third country or region may enter China through any of the 65 ports across the country and stay up to 240 hours, or 10 days, without a visa, according to the National Immigration Administration (NIA).

Citizens of these two countries who hold ordinary passports will also be eligible for the 30-day visa-free entry policy for Hainan Province in south China starting the same day. This will allow them to enter the province through Hainan's open ports and stay visa-free for up to 30 days. With these additions, the number of countries covered by this Hainan visa-free policy has now reached 61.

During the visa-free period, travelers are permitted to engage in tourism, business, exchange visits and family visits. However, the two policies do not cover employment, study or journalistic activities, which still require appropriate visas, the NIA said.

These measures are part of China's broader efforts to boost international travel and exchanges following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In December 2024, authorities extended the visa-free transit window from 72 or 144 hours to 240 hours. The country has also expanded its unilateral visa-free access program, allowing travelers from 50 countries to stay for up to 30 days.

These sweeping policy changes have facilitated increased travel to China, fueling a surge in online content and interest in "China Travel," particularly on platforms like YouTube.

China's border authorities handled a record 369 million inbound and outbound crossings in the first half of 2026, up 10.8 percent year-on-year, according to the NIA.

Foreign arrivals in China rose, with visa-free entries surging 30.6 percent year on year to exceed 17.8 million during the same period, accounting for more than three-quarters of all foreign arrivals.

Vietnam was China's fourth largest source of inbound travelers in the first half of this year, after the Republic of Korea, Russia, and Malaysia, according to the NIA data.

Chinese regions bordering Vietnam have been popular destinations among Vietnamese travelers. Hekou Port in southwest China's Yunnan Province, for example, recorded more than 4 million border crossings between China and Vietnam from the beginning of this year until Aug. 13, up 5.24 percent year on year, including travelers in more than 20,000 tourist groups.

Nguyen Duc Kha, who works for a fruit exporter in Vietnam, believes that the new visa-free transit policy will offer more convenience for frequent cross-border business travelers and encourage more Vietnamese visitors to explore a wider range of destinations in China.

"At present, Hainan is not yet a very popular destination among Vietnamese tourists," Kha noted. "I hope this visa policy, together with Hainan's expansion of entertainment and recreational services, will attract more Vietnamese visitors."

Meanwhile, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which borders Kyrgyzstan and several other Asian countries, recorded more than 2.4 million border-crossing trips in the first half of this year, a 33.2 percent rise from the same period last year.

Its Torugart Port connecting China and Kyrgyzstan recorded more than 64,000 inbound and outbound trips in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 60 percent.