Foreign arrivals surge at Pudong airport as visa-free travel gains momentum
Shanghai Pudong International Airport has seen a huge surge in the number of inbound international travelers following the Spring Festival holiday, according to the Shanghai Airport Station of Immigration Inspection.
From Feb 13 to 19, the airport received 95,000 inbound international passengers, accounting for 28 percent of all international arrivals, the station reported.
The daily average number of international travelers passing through immigration reached 13,000, with the highest number of arrivals in a single day being nearly 16,000 — an increase of 30 percent compared with the same period last year.
Around 30 percent of the travelers came for business purposes.
Many international travelers are taking advantage of China's 24-hour or 240-hour visa-free transit policies. For example, on Feb 18, a fully booked international flight from Paris landed at Terminal 1 at 6:40 pm. Nearly half of its passengers were foreign nationals, most of whom took advantage of the visa-free policy.
"The visa-free policy has made it very easy for me to take a two-week trip around Shanghai and Anhui (province)," said a French passenger named Tournier.
Kathleen, a traveler from the United States who visited China 35 years ago, said the 240-hour visa-free policy was more than enough for her to revisit Shanghai and experience the changes the city has undergone over the decades.
The immigration inspection station granted 4,399 entry permits under the 24-hour and 240-hour visa-free policies from Feb 13 to 19.
Source: Shanghai Observer
