China offers visa-free travel to UAE, Qatar, Norway, and 51 other countries

China has recently added Norway to the list of countries allowed for visa-free travel. Qatar and UAE are already on the list for visa-free travel lasting from 72 hours to 144 hours. 

UAE and Qatar visa-free travel to China

According to the NIA, individuals from the permitted countries can now visit China visa-free and can conduct business in the places allowed. There are two policies as of yet, the 144 hour policy and the 72 hour policy. The major cities have the 144 hour policy such as Beijing and Shanghai while other cities such as Changsha, Guilin, and Harbin are under the 72-hour policy. 

Mao Xu of NIA says that we welcome tourists and we wish for people to come and visit China under the visa-free policies. He also stated that we urge the travel agencies in our own country as well as abroad to help more foreigners to come and visit China.

At the end of October, the foreign visitors numbers had massively decreased by 26.51 million after China’s revised policies for the COVID-19 pandemic. 

However, the travel mart themed ‘Nihao,China’ attracted an enormous number of visitors from 72 countries. This event has been held every year since 2001, however, it was missed for the last 3 years due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

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However, travel agencies and tourists from 8 different countries marked their presence and they promised to increase the influx of tourists next year as well. 

The Secretary General of UNWTO Zurab stated that the mart is actually one of the biggest tourism events held not just in China but all of Asia that shows the growth of tourism in the region.

The Georgian Agency had attended the event for the fourth time in a row and brought in a healthy amount of tourists and promised to bring more the next year.

According to the briefing by the Chinese officials, the following countries are permitted visa free travel to China for a period of 72 to 144 hours. 

European Countries for visa-free travel to China

The following counties from the European and Schengen side are included in the visa-free travel scheme by China.

1. Austria 
2. Belgium
3. Denmark
4. Finland
5. Germany
6. France
7. Greece
8. Hungary
9. Italy
10. Latvia
11. Spain
12. Iceland
13. Malta
14. Netherlands
15. Norway
16. Poland
17. Sweden
18. Switzerland

The list continues as a total of 25 countries are included in this scheme.

Other European Countries included in visa-free travel to China

Several other countries such as Russia, Bosnia, Serbia, UK, Ireland, Cyprus, Ukraine, Croatia, Albania, and Mocano are included. The USA, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, and Argentina are also included. Two countries for Oceania are also located in the visa- free scheme. The two Oceania countries are Australia and New Zealand.

Asian Countries visa-free travel to China

Six Asian countries are also located in the visa-free travel. The Asian countries include South Korea, Japan, UAE, Qatar, Singapore, and Brunei.