(Yicai) March 4 -- Wang Yu, chairman of Spring Airlines and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, proposed that relevant authorities should optimize China's visa-free policies to attract more overseas visitors.

On the premise of ensuring national security and border control, China should add more countries to its visa-free list and expand the duration of relevant stays, Wang told the CPPCC, which runs from today through March 11 and is one of the country's two top annual policy-setting meetings.

"Compared with neighboring countries, our visa-free policies still have relatively high thresholds," Wang noted. "Japan, South Korea, and Thailand generally offer visa-free stays of 21 to 90 days for European and US tourists, which has a noticeable effect on diverting tourists away from China."

China grants unilateral visa-free access to citizens of 50 countries and has mutual visa-free agreements with 29 nations, with those entering China under such arrangements generally allowed to stay for up to 30 days per entry. In addition, a 240-hour transit visa exemption is available for citizens of 55 countries.

Wang also suggested easing restrictions on entry and exit ports for foreigners using the visa-free transit, adding more railroad, highway, and water ports between China and neighboring countries to make travel more convenient.

Foreigners can only transit to a third country through 65 designated ports under current rules, which brings some inconvenience to visitors, as well as airlines and travel agencies, Wang pointed out.

Chinese authorities should actively promote visa-free and relevant transit policies on overseas social media platforms because many foreigners are still unaware of them, Wang said, adding that they can also launch an "Inbound Tourism Content Creator Support Program," encouraging influencers to share their experience and the convenience of traveling to China online, attracting more young tourists.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev