Shanghai has seen an increase in inbound and outbound passengers in the first quarter of the year, with the total entry and exit volume growing 27 percent year-on-year to over 10.15 million person-times, according to data from the Shanghai General Station of Immigration Inspection.

As China resumed and optimized its visa-free policies and other measures to facilitate international trips in recent years, foreign travelers have increasingly flocked into the country. In Q1, Shanghai recorded over 2.65 million international visitors, among which nearly 2.42 million passed through the city's airports, representing a 49-percent increase year-on-year.

"Thanks to visa-free and 240-hour temporary entry policies, we have seen a remarkable increase in foreign nationals entering and exiting Hongqiao and Pudong international airports in the first quarter. About 80 percent of them were traveling for tourism and business. We also compiled statistics that show that the number of foreign travelers benefiting from the visa-free policies and entering Shanghai in the first quarter reached 601,000 person-times, accounting for more than 50 percent of all inbound foreign travelers at the two airports," said Bai Yejian from the command center at Shanghai General Station of Immigration Inspection.

Meanwhile, as more nations offer visa-free entry to China and the increasing number of international air routes, more Chinese are making overseas tourism and business trips. In Q1, more than 6.7 million person-times of Chinese mainland residents entered and exited Shanghai ports, with a daily average number reaching 74,000, up about 20 percent year-on-year.

In addition, Shanghai's cruise ports were also seeing more foreign entries. On March 16, AIDAstella of AIDA Cruises and Spectrum of the Seas belonging to Royal Caribbean International, docked at the Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal, bringing nearly 4,800 foreign tourists to the city and marking the highest single-day arrival of international visitors since the terminal opened in 2011.

To further facilitate passengers' entry and exit, Shanghai ports have rolled out a slew of measures to streamline the immigration and customs clearance process, including more efficient inspection, entry card filling and reporting measures as well as multi-language translation services.

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