Major ports across China saw a surge in passenger traffic during the 2026 New Year holiday, which lasts from Thursday to Saturday.
At Shanghai Pudong International Airport's Terminal 2 immigration hall, travelers crowded the counters on New Year's Day, the first day of the holiday. Authorities said ports in Shanghai are expected to handle 322,000 passenger movements during the three-day holiday, up 17.8 percent from a year earlier.
"This is probably the eighth or ninth time I'm coming to China this year, and the experience actually at the airport has been much facilitated," said a German traveler.
Ports in Shanghai reported an increase in international arrivals in 2025, according to local immigration inspection authorities.
"In 2025, ports in Shanghai saw more than 5.6 million inbound international travelers, nearly 40 percent more than the previous year. Of these, 3.286 million entered under visa-free or 240-hour visa-free transit policies, accounting for 58 percent of the total inbound international travelers," said Lan Gongqiang, deputy director of the border inspection department of Shanghai Airport Immigration Inspection Station.
Beijing also reported strong growth of inbound and outbound traveler numbers in 2025.
Its ports handled more than 21.4 million inbound and outbound travelers in 2025, up 17.4 percent from the previous year, marking the highest annual figure since 2020.
