Chinese Embassy and consulates have issued over 50,000 visas to Indian citizens wanting to travel to China as of March 17, 2025.
Revealing these figures, the Chinese Ambassador to India, Xu Feihong, said that they result from facilitated travel rules for Indians, VisaGuide.World reports.
Authorities in China introduced new measures to make the travel process easier for nationals of India, among them, abolishing online appointments.
Measures have been taken to make it easier to visit China, such as no online appointment any more, biometric collection exemption for short term stay, visa fees deduction and so on. While flowers blossom in Spring, we welcome more Indian friends to visit China and get a first-hand experience of China in spring.
Since China and India do not have a visa-free travel agreement, travelers from India are subject to visa requirements when planning to visit China for tourism or business purposes.
Indian nationals, therefore, are required to head to embassies, or visa application centers before planning to travel to China.
Resumption of Flights Between China & India
In addition to facilitated entry rules, another agreement reached earlier this year between the countries could also boost visitors’ numbers and tighten connections between both territories.
In January 2025, authorities in China and India agreed to resume direct flights between both territories after being halted for about five years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through a statement, the Foreign Ministry of China, said that a top envoy’s visit to China led to an agreement in principle to resume direct flights between the two countries, according to VOA.
The relevant technical authorities on the two sides will meet and negotiate an updated framework for this purpose at an early date.
Before the pandemic, about 500 monthly direct flights were operated between China and India, according to Moneycontrol.
Surge in Visitors Following Visa-Free Policy
Following the visa-free travel agreements with several countries, China has experienced a sharp increase in the number of foreign visitors.
According to the statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics, last year, the number of foreign visitor entries reached a total of 26.94 million while revenue from international travelers reached a total of $94.2 billion, accounting for an increase of 95.5 percent and 77.8 percent respectively from 2023 statistics.
China extended its unilateral visa-free policy to several countries last year, meaning that from November last year, until December 31, 2025, nationals of these countries would be eligible to travel visa-free to China.