Cross-border sightseeing trips during Spring Festival holidays rebound to reach 90% of 2019 levels

There were 13.52 million inbound and outbound trips made during the 8-day Spring Festival holidays, and on average 1.69 million border entries and exits were made every day, an increase of 2.8 times compared with the same period last year and reaching nearly 90 percent of the levels seen in 2019, data from the National Immigration Administration (NIA) showed on Sunday.

On daily average, a total of 1.69 million border entries and exits were made during the period, data showed. The daily peak was on February 12, when 1.86 million inbound and outbound trips were made.

Border authorities inspected 459,000 transportation vehicles including ships, trains and cars, which is 1.6 times compared with the Chinese Lunar New Year period in 2023.

Border entries and exits between South China's Guangdong Province and Hong Kong and Macao were significant, with local overland border entries and exits accounting for 73.1 percent of the national total, according to NIA data.

Major airports in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou also saw record number of inbound and outbound trips made. At Beijing Capital International Airport, an average of 34,000 trips were made daily, which is 7.5 times of the corresponding figure in 2023.

Reflecting a new trend in which Hong Kong residents spending the holidays in mainland cities, more Hong Kong residents are making payments using WeChat Pay during their tours, with the number of transactions jumping nearly 500 percent and the volume increasing 300 percent compared with the levels seen in Chinese Lunar New Year holidays in 2023, according to a statement Tencent sent to the Global Times on Sunday.

Meanwhile, mainland visitors WeChat payment transactions in Hong Kong increased by 5 times while those in Macao increased by 106 percent compared with the levels seen in 2023.

Boosted by the free-visa policies introduced between China and a number of countries, overseas payment transactions via WeChat Pay rose 2.4 times from the levels seen in 2023, with Southeast Asia the main travel destinations for outbound Chinese tourists.