Finland, Iceland, Slovakia: 24 European countries can now visit China visa-free

05.11.2024 - 23:53 / euronews.com / Angela Symons / Mao Ning

China's visa-free list continues to grow, with five more European countries being added.

Citizens of Andorra, Finland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco and Slovakia have now been granted visa waivers for the Asian nation.

Tourists from these countries, as well as South Korea, will be able to enter China visa-free from 8 November 2024 until 31 December 2025.

This comes after it was announced Norway would be added earlier in September, followed by Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Portugal and Slovenia in October.

It brings the total number of European countries granted visa-free access up to 24.

In July, tourists from Poland, Australia and New Zealand were also granted unrestricted entry to China until the end of 2025.

Since the start of 2024, the scheme has been announced in stages, with various European nations and Malaysia also gaining visa-free access. It aims to encourage more people to visit China for business and tourism, and promote exchanges between Chinese citizens and foreign nationals.

The full list of European countries now includes Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland. Tourists from these countries will be allowed to enter China for short stays without a visa until the end of next year.

The aim is “to facilitate the high-quality development of Chinese and foreign personnel exchanges and high-level opening up to the outside world,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a briefing on the initial announcement made in November.

Visa-free entry will be granted for up to 15 days in the trial programme.

China's strict pandemic measures, which included required quarantines for all arrivals, discouraged many people from visiting for nearly three years. The restrictions were lifted early last year, but international travel has yet to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.

China previously allowed citizens of Brunei, Japan and Singapore to enter without a visa but suspended that after the COVID-19 outbreak. It resumed visa-free entry for Brunei and Singapore in July but has not done so for Japan.

In 2023, China recorded 35.5 million entries and exits by foreigners, according to immigration statistics. That compares to 97.7 million for all of 2019, the last year before the pandemic.

The government has been seeking foreign investment to help boost a sluggish economy, and some businesspeople have been coming for trade fairs and meetings, including Tesla's Elon Musk and Apple's Tim Cook. Foreign tourists are still a rare sight compared to before the pandemic.

Last year saw a surge in interest in China as a tourist destination