China Inbound Daily: Provinces, Numbers and the Attractions Behind Them

China Inbound Daily: Where the Holiday Visitors Actually Went

Provincial inbound figures and the attractions behind them, from Beijing and Shanghai to Yunnan, Fujian and Hunan - with what the numbers mean for the rest of the autumn season. Figures are the published official and platform readings for the Mid-Autumn and National Day period.

The National Picture: Foreign Arrivals Growing Three Times Faster Than Total Traffic

Over the three days of the Mid-Autumn holiday, border inspection authorities handled 6.709 million cross-border movements, up 16.8% year on year. Within that total, foreign nationals reached 728,000, up 37.7% - and 247,000 of those entered visa-free, up 32.7%. For the year to August, ports had already processed 61.287 million foreign entries and exits, up 19.5%. Platform data puts average stay length in China at 5.1 days this year, 11% longer than in 2025.

What it means: the growth is concentrated in exactly the segment that matters commercially - foreign visitors, arriving more freely, staying longer. For anyone planning a trip, that combination shows up as earlier sell-outs on timed entries and rail seats rather than as visible queues.

Where They Went: The Provincial Numbers

Beijing received 83,000 inbound visitors during the Mid-Autumn holiday, spending RMB 780 million, with Olympic Park, Wangfujing and Qianmen Street the busiest areas. Across the first six days of the National Day holiday, inbound arrivals reached 112,000, up 24.6%.

Shanghai processed 577,000 entries and exits between 1 and 5 October, a daily average of 115,000, of which 67,000 were inbound foreign nationals and more than 60% of them entered visa-free or on the 240-hour transit waiver. The Rolex Masters, running through the holiday, added a second stream of arrivals.

Guangdong hosted 24.82 million visitors over the Mid-Autumn holiday with RMB 12.55 billion in spending, up 28.9% and 27.6%, and the province's 100 monitored rural tourism and ancient-village sites recorded 64.2% more visitors.

Sichuan recorded 47,903 inbound arrivals in the first six days, up 9.2%. In Hunan, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park welcomed 219,200 visitors in the first five days, of whom 13,200 were foreign, up 11.86%. In Yunnan, Kunming's airport passed three million entries and exits for the year by 2 October - 31 days earlier than in 2025 - including more than 969,000 foreign nationals, up 18.6%. Fujian expected close to 180,000 port movements across the week, with daily volumes 19% above mid-September, and both Fuzhou and Xiamen placed among the country's busiest inbound destinations.

For planning purposes the practical takeaway is that a route can now be built around a second-tier city without sacrificing the things that go wrong on arrival - see how we plan the days. What it means: inbound travel is no longer a gateway-city story. Provinces that were once transit points are now destinations, and each has its own version of the offer - mountains in Hunan, markets and old cities in Guangdong, plateau routes in Yunnan, diaspora and heritage in Fujian.

Russia Took First Place, and the Map Broadened

Platform booking data for the double holiday shows inbound demand growing at double-digit rates, with Russia the fastest-growing source market at +173% and the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Canada all above 50%. The wider pattern matches what we reported from summer data: source markets are shifting from East and Southeast Asian neighbours towards Europe and Oceania.

The booking mix is also changing shape. Inbound day-tour orders more than quadrupled, attraction tickets rose over 220% and train tickets over 170%, while international flight bookings grew 22.5%. Those are the numbers of travellers who have already arrived and are filling the days between cities - the kind of traveller who books the pieces late and wants them to work. Our source-market breakdown explains who these arrivals are and where they come from.

The Attractions Actually Moving the Numbers

The experiences drawing visitors this holiday were specific rather than generic: Zhangjiajie, where Tujia song-and-dance and intangible-heritage performances ran through the holiday; Chengdu's Du Fu Thatched Cottage, where visitors read classical poetry and made herbal sachets; Longmen Grottoes and the Linzhou Taihang Grand Canyon in Henan, combining stone carving, autumn harvest customs and immersive performances; Anhui's Tangmo ancient village, with stone rubbings and fish-lantern making; and Sanya's duty-free complex, where Russian visitors described the combination of coastal weather and international retail.

Alongside those, a set of cities that rarely appear on inbound lists - Luoyang, Datong, Shantou, and Chaozhou - moved into the popular-destination rankings. Service infrastructure is following: Shanghai opened a dedicated visitor service centre, and Zhejiang upgraded a provincial platform covering itinerary planning, ticketing, cross-border payment and departure tax refunds in one place.

What it means: the winning format combines a landscape or old city with something a visitor can do with their hands. It is also the format least suited to a coach-and-loudspeaker itinerary, which is why our Zhangjiajie notes and four-day Beijing plan are built around booking the fixed pieces and leaving the days free.

What This Means for the Rest of the Season

Three practical consequences. First, the autumn window is now genuinely busy: October and early November hold both the tail of the holiday surge and the peak for autumn photography, so the fixed-capacity items should be booked before flights. Second, shopping and retail have become part of the itinerary rather than an afterthought - see why shopping became a reason to travel and our notes on the Hainan and Shanghai retail picture. Third, longer stays keep growing: travellers who stay a week or more are planning around a base city rather than a list of sights, which is what our long-stay notes are about.

Frequently Asked Questions