During the first half of 2025, Hunan’s ports have handled more than 780,000 inbound and outbound trips, rising 7 percent year on year, according to data released by the Hunan General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection on July 2.
Among these trips, over 450,000 were made by foreigners, accounting for 58 percent of the total, an increase of 2.8 percent, marking a record for the same period since the opening of Hunan's ports.
Data shows that in the first six months, foreign travelers entering through Hunan’s airports came from 132 countries, with those from South Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand ranking as the top three. Ninety percent of foreigner travelers made over 200,000 inbound trips, taking advantage of the mutual or unilateral visa-free policies, and the 24/240-hour visa-free transit stay policy, marking a 1.7-fold growth compared to 2024. Among the inbound foreigners, more than 94 percent came for sightseeing and recreation.
In the first half of 2025, over 320,000 inbound and outbound trips through Hunan’s airports were made by Chinese mainland residents, up 14.5 percent year on year. The top three popular destination countries for the outbound Chinese mainland residents were Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Changsha airport handled 530,000 inbound and outbound trips, rising 9.8 percent over the previous year. Forty percent of these trips were made by foreign travelers. Over 3,600 inbound and outbound flights were operated, a 5.4-percent increase year on year, including over 3,200 passenger flights, a rise of 14.7 percent.
Zhangjiajie airport recorded nearly 250,000 inbound and outbound trips, increasing by 1.6 percent. Nearly 240,000 trips were made by foreign travelers, accounting for 96 percent of the total. More than 1,600 international passenger flights were operated, up 9.2 percent year on year.
To better serve passengers and maximize customs clearance efficiency, the Hunan General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection has implemented a "Pre-application of Arrival Cards for Foreign Travelers on Demand" mechanism. Travel agencies and airlines are instructed to arrange for foreign passengers to fill out arrival cards before landing. Information collection, real-time passenger flow monitoring, and passenger diversion are all carried out at the inspection sites prior to customs clearance. In addition, 24-hour multilingual (Chinese, English, Russian, Japanese, and Korean) online consultation services are available through the 12367 Service Platform.
This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.
Translator: Pang Yuehui
Chinese source: Chinanews
