According to State Immigration Administration statistics, China issued a total of 78.564 million entry and exit documents in the first half this year, 18.2% more than the same period of 2017. About 76.416 million of the documents were for Chinese in mainland, 1.048 million for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents, and the remainder 1.1 million for non-Chinese.
The total number of inbound and outbound travelers in China rose by 7.7% to 310 million, including 160 million mainland Chinese, 75.889 million Hong Kong residents, 24 million Macao residents, 5.757 million Taiwan residents and 45.754 million international tourists.
The immigration authorities issued 16.416 million (+21%) regular passports, 13.11 million (+16.6%) permits for traveling to Hong Kong and Macao issued for mainland residents, and 3.552 million (23.8%) permits for traveling to Taiwan.
A total of 403,000 (+33.8%) permits for traveling to the Mainland were issued to Hong Kong and Macao residents in H1 2018, and 645,000 (+2.4%) permits were issued for Taiwan residents.
During the first six months of this year, China signed 1.1 million (+3.5%) visa certificates for international applicants and granted permanent residency to 2,409 foreign citizens (+109%).
The number of outbound and inbound tourists for H1 2018 increased significantly. The number of mainland residents leaving the country jumped by 14.1% to 77.941 million, and the number of foreigners entering the country climbed by 11.2% to 23.11 million.
The top 10 destinations for mainland residents were Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, the United States, Taiwan, Myanmar and Singapore.
The top 10 source markets for China’s inbound tourism were South Korea, Myanmar, Japan, the United States, Russia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore.
