China recorded 697 million border crossings nationwide in 2025, up 14.2 percent year-on-year and hitting a historical high, the National Immigration Administration announced on Wednesday.
Among these, mainland residents accounted for 335 million crossings, up 15.1 percent; while Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan residents made up 279 million, up 10.1 percent; and foreigners totaled nearly 82.04 million, up 26.4 percent.
Visa-free entries for foreigners reached 30.08 million, making up 73.1 percent of foreign entries, a 49.5 percent increase year-on-year.
In 2025, national immigration authorities also processed a total of 38.116 million flights, trains, ships, and vehicles crossing the borders, reflecting a 17 percent increase year-on-year. This included 1.01 million airplanes, 107,000 trains, 459,000 ships and 36.54 million motor vehicles.
Efforts to deepen immigration management service reforms and policy innovations continued, enhancing service efficiency. Throughout the year, nearly 20.9 million ordinary passports were issued, along with nearly 98.54 million travel permits for mainland residents traveling to and from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
Additionally, about 2.25 million travel permits for Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan residents entering the mainland were issued, as well as 2.02 million visas for foreigners.
The NIA's service platform also provided 185 million instances of government services such as inquiries for domestic and foreign travelers and offered free identity verification services to nearly 76.33 million Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan residents, overseas Chinese, and foreign permanent residents. The NIA 12367 service platform handled 7.11 million inquiries from both domestic and foreign individuals, achieving an average satisfaction rate of 99.5 percent.
The NIA also expanded the pilot cities for the "online processing" of mainland residents' reissuance and replacement of travel documents to 50 cities. Indonesia was added to the list of countries eligible for the 240-hour visa-free transit policy, with five ports in Guangdong province designated as applicable ports, bringing the total to 65.
Additionally, a visa-free policy for ASEAN tourist groups entering Xishuangbanna, Yunnan province, was implemented. In collaboration with relevant departments, the number of countries unilaterally exempted from obtaining Chinese visas increased to 48, with mutual visa exemption countries expanding to 29, and the list of countries unilaterally exempting Chinese citizens grew to 28.
