‘Unlock China’ guide highlights visa-free entry, 144-hour transit waivers and niche destinations for inbound tourists

In a feature timed to coincide with the start of the spring–summer travel window, state broadcaster CGTN has published a detailed playbook for foreign visitors titled “How global travellers can unlock China in May 2026.” The article distils the latest visa-free entry rules—including China’s unilateral 30-day waiver for 50 countries, its 15-day bilateral exemptions and its 144-hour (six-day) transit-without-visa schemes now available at 23 city clusters.



For those unsure about which exemption applies to them—or who simply prefer a professional to double-check their paperwork—VisaHQ can step in as a one-stop resource. Through its China-specific portal (https://www.visahq.com/china/), the firm offers real-time eligibility assessments, document reviews and express filing options, making it easier for both leisure travellers and corporate road-warriors to take advantage of Beijing’s rapidly evolving entry rules.

It also explains how inbound passengers can use the NIA 12367 mini-program to pre-fill arrival cards and activate mainland mobile-payment wallets at the airport. CGTN’s travel editors go beyond paperwork to map demand trends mined from Visa’s cross-border spending data and Xiaohongshu’s foreign-tourist heat-map. While Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou remain the top spend magnets, tier-2 and tier-3 cities such as Zhangjiajie, Zhengzhou and Taiyuan are making inroads by packaging immersive ‘slow-travel’ experiences. Bookings for county-level destinations have surged 128 percent year-on-year, according to Ctrip, a sign that visiting executives are starting to add bleisure days to itineraries. For corporate mobility teams, the most useful section may be the checklist of digital firsts: e-SIM activation kiosks at 13 airports, real-name wallet onboarding via self-service terminals, and QR-coded tourist passes that bundle metro, intercity rail and museum entry. The guide also warns that some smaller regional airports still require manual inspection for passengers entering on the 144-hour waiver—an important footnote for suppliers planning multi-city site visits. The publication underscores the government’s messaging that China is ‘open for business’ and keen to attract international spending. By highlighting case studies—such as European engineering firms using the transit waiver to stage 72-hour client demos in Jiangsu—CGTN positions the visa policy as a competitive differentiator in Asia’s fight for post-pandemic tourism and investment. Global mobility managers should circulate the article’s destination insights to travelling staff and consider leveraging the 144-hour waiver for hub-and-spoke trips that touch multiple Chinese plants. With hotel occupancies running high in first-tier cities during Golden Week, rerouting meetings to emerging hot-spots could cut costs and elevate employee experience.