China Received Almost Three Times the Population of Colombia in Foreign Visitors: Why Is That Number Growing So Much?
Portafolio Journalist 03/07/2026 11:36 Updated: 03/07/2026 11:45
TL;DR
- China hosted over 150 million foreign visitors in 2025, a 17% increase from the previous year.
- Expanded visa-free policies for tourism and business, covering European countries, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and several Latin American nations, contributed to the visitor surge.
- Foreign tourist spending reached over $130 billion, boosted by easier access to digital payment systems like WeChat Pay and Alipay.
- The Chinese government implemented regulatory and technological adjustments to allow foreign tourists to use these payment platforms with international cards.
- Popular activities for foreign visitors included high-speed train travel, drone shows, traditional cultural experiences, and wearing Hanfu.
- Domestic travel also saw a significant increase, with 6.5 billion internal trips recorded in 2025, a 16% year-on-year rise.
- The Lunar New Year holiday period saw 596 million internal displacements.
- The development of the high-speed rail network was cited as a factor in the growth of domestic travel.