China's 2030 Inbound Tourism Plan: 190M Visits, Easier Visas, Smoother Refunds

China's inbound tourism target for 2030 is now official: 190 million visits a year, with visitors spending over $150 billion. The roadmap to get there was laid out this week — and it's good news for anyone planning a China trip.

At a State Council Information Office press conference on September 24, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism Wang Jianhua outlined how China will make inbound travel easier over the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030). The headline numbers build on a record 2025, when China hosted 154 million inbound tourist trips, up 17.1 percent year on year, with inbound traveler spending surpassing $130 billion — nearly 40 percent higher than the year before.

What The Plan Promises Travelers

The plan's concrete commitments, aimed at making visas, payments, tax refunds, guided tours, accommodation and transport smoother for international visitors:

• Visa-free access keeps expanding. China now grants unilateral visa-free entry to travelers from 50 countries, allowing eligible visitors to stay up to 30 days. The 240-hour visa-free transit policy covers 57 countries — with Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam added just last month — through 65 designated ports across 24 provincial regions.
• Easier payments and refunds. Authorities are encouraging everyday service apps to offer multilingual versions and optimizing departure tax refund services — a direct boost for the "China Haul" shopping trend that's been growing across social media.
• More immersive experiences. The ministry plans to develop travel products that combine traditional culture with modern life, from craft workshops to night markets and neighborhood experiences — the exact kind of experiences travelers keep sharing as #ChinaTravel content.

How Travelers Can Use The New Rules

For most visitors, the practical route looks like this: if your passport is on the unilateral visa-free list, you can fly in for business, tourism, family visits or transit and stay up to 30 days without any visa paperwork. If you're transiting through China to a third country, the 240-hour window covers entry through 65 ports — including major hubs like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu — giving you up to ten days to explore a city and its surroundings before flying on. The program's expansion to 57 countries, with Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam added in September, keeps widening the net.

Beyond entry, the convenience push touches daily travel friction points: multilingual menus and apps, mobile payment support at more venues, and a departure tax refund process that officials say will get faster. For travelers who've already discovered the "China Haul" habit — arriving with an empty suitcase and leaving with teaware, silk and street finds at a fraction of home prices — the refund optimization matters. So does the quieter shift toward experiences: the ministry is steering travelers toward craft workshops, night markets and neighborhood life, the same experiences driving #ChinaTravel and #Chinamaxxing across social media.

The Context: A Tourism Boom Already Underway

The policy push follows a year of accelerating inbound travel. In the first eight months of 2026, foreign nationals made nearly 61.29 million border crossings, up 19.5 percent year on year. Visa-free entries accounted for 23.72 million of those — 77.6 percent of the total. In the first half of 2026 alone, 77.7 percent of foreign visitors entered under visa-free arrangements.

The cultural economy backing this is equally strong: domestic travelers made a record 6.52 billion trips in 2025, spending 6.3 trillion yuan, while the cultural industry generated 20.8 trillion yuan in revenue.

What This Means For Travelers

For visitors, the practical takeaway is simple: China is getting easier to enter and easier to move around in. More visa-free routes, smoother payments, faster tax refunds and more everyday experiences — all pointing in the same direction as the travel trends travelers already love, whether that's a night market in Chengdu, a hanfu session in Beijing, or a porcelain workshop in Jingdezhen.

The 2030 target is ambitious, but the momentum is already there. And for travelers, that momentum translates into fewer barriers and more reasons to go.