QINGDAO, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Boosted by an expanded flight network and China's visa-free policy, over 78,000 visitors from the Republic of Korea (ROK) entered China via the coastal city Qingdao in east China's Shandong Province in the first quarter of 2025, up 45 percent year on year, the Qingdao Airport said on Wednesday.

As a key gateway hub to Japan and ROK, Qingdao Airport now handles an average of 33 daily round-trip flights to and from ROK, operated by multiple airlines, according to Qingdao International Airport Group.

This includes 29 daily round-trip flights between Qingdao and Seoul, and 4 daily round-trip flights between Qingdao and Busan. Additionally, there are 2 weekly round-trip flights between Qingdao and Jeju.

Notably, to accommodate the growing demand, Shandong Airlines has increased the frequency of its Qingdao-Seoul route, raising its daily round-trip flights to 14 from 12.

Since November 2023, China has continuously adjusted and optimized its visa-free transit policy to boost openness and people-to-people exchanges.

According to data from the online travel platform Trip.com, after China implemented the visa-free policy for ROK and eight other countries in November 2024, the year-on-year growth rate of inbound tourism orders from ROK exceeded 150 percent within less than a month.

Last year, over 20.1 million foreign visitors entered China under the visa exemption policy, marking a year-on-year increase of 113.5 percent in eligible transit visa-exemption travelers. Enditem

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