Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: People's Republic of China in Russian – People's Republic of China in Russian –
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Source: People's Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) — Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a regular press conference on Tuesday that China will introduce a trial visa-free regime for Russian citizens holding ordinary passports from September 15, 2025 to September 14, 2026.
According to this report, Russian citizens holding valid ordinary passports may visit China under a visa-free regime for the purposes of doing business, making tourist trips, visiting relatives and friends, exchanging visits, and for transit; their stay in China should not exceed 30 days.
According to Pengpai News, Zhou Weihong, deputy general manager of Spring Travel, noted that the ties between China and Russia in the fields of economy, trade and tourism are very close, and the introduction of a visa-free regime will significantly reduce the time costs and bureaucratic barriers for Russian citizens wishing to visit China. This will especially support the needs of business exchanges involving frequent or short-term trips. As of now, the number of Russian tourists received by Spring Travel this year has already exceeded last year's figures.
Data from the travel platform “Qunar” show that within half an hour of the announcement of the news about the “visa-free regime for Russian citizens,” the number of search queries for air tickets from Moscow to China increased almost twofold compared to the previous week, and the instantaneous growth of search queries reached almost four times. Among them, air tickets from Moscow to Beijing were in the greatest demand.
According to a report from Tongcheng Travel, since August 2023, when China and Russia resumed the visa-free regime for group tourism, the mutual flow of tourists between the two countries has continued to recover. According to statistics, in 2024, nearly 1.04 million Chinese citizens chose Russia as their first tourism destination, an increase of 209.3 percent compared with 2023. China received more than 1.5 million Russian tourists last year, an increase of 115.1 percent compared with 2023.
In terms of inbound tourism in the summer season this year, Ctrip data shows that Russia has entered the top five countries supplying tourists to China during the summer tourist season. Since July, the number of bookings for inbound tourism tours from Russia on the Ctrip platform has jumped by 150 percent compared to the same period in 2024. According to a report by Qunar, Russia is among the top three countries supplying tourists to China, and thanks to the visa-free regime in China, a significant increase in the number of Russian tourists is expected.
Ctrip Vice President Qin Jing said that Russia is not only an important market for China's inbound tourism sector, but also a friendly neighbor with shared mountains and rivers, and is also a major inbound tourism destination for China among SCO member states. China's introduction of a visa-free regime will not only greatly facilitate mutual travel for citizens of the two countries, but will also promote the deepening of people-to-people exchanges and cultural enrichment between China and Russia. This move will open up new opportunities for bilateral tourism exchanges between China and Russia, and is expected to further boost China's inbound tourism market.
A senior official from Tongcheng Travel Research Institute noted that with the continuous optimization of the visa-free regime between China and Russia, as well as the continuous improvement of tourism infrastructure and service network, cultural and tourist exchanges between the two countries may become more frequent. -0-
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