China Received Almost Three Times the Population of Colombia in Foreign Visitors: Why Is That Number Growing So Much?

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.

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