HANGZHOU, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Ningbo, a coastal city in east China's Zhejiang Province, will officially implement a policy allowing eligible international travelers to transit within 144 hours without a visa from December 1, according to the local authority.
The policy enables the transit foreigners via Ningbo airport to stay in Shanghai Municipality, Jiangsu Province, and Zhejiang Province for 144 hours without a visa. It makes Ningbo the fourth city in the Yangtze River Delta region to implement the 144-hour visa-free transit policy, following Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou.
Foreigners who hold valid international travel documents and have the pre-booked connected international flight tickets for a third country (region) within 144 hours can apply to the border inspection authorities of Ningbo for 144-hour transit in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. The entry stay time is counted from zero o'clock the next day of entry.
The visa-free transit policy will improve layout of Ningbo air routes, facilitate foreigners' visits in the Yangtze River Delta region for tourism, business negotiations, and visiting relatives and friends, and further expand the international tourism market of Ningbo, said the local authority.
The visa-free transit policy approved by the State Council applies to people from 53 countries including Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Russia, the United States, Brazil, Japan and Qatar.
From January 2013 to September this year, more than 452,000 foreigners traveled through China under the visa-free policy. The number reached 100,000 in 2018, up 24 percent year on year, according to the National Immigration Administration (NIA). (Contributed by Zhang Meng, edited by Hu Pingchao, hupingchao@xinhua.org)
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