Chinese cities will offer 144-hour visa-free transit services to foreign travelers from 53 countries, starting from Dec 1, 2019. In recent years, China has launched more preferential policies for foreign visitors which are visa-related in order to serve travellers and help boost tourism in a better and organized manner. The new arrangement is an extension and optimization of the current 72-hour visa-free transit policy.

According to the National Immigration Administration, it was approved to extend the visa-free period for foreigners transiting through the cities existing from currently permitted 72 hours to an increase of 144 hours, bringing the total cities to 20, beside the newly added Ningbo city in Zhejiang province, the areas of Chongqing Municipality and Xi'an city, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province.

From 2013, the State Council had approved the 72-hour visa-free transit in 18 cities for eligible international travelers and later extended the period to 144 hours in cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Shijiazhuang, and Shenyang.

Besides Chengdu, Fujian Province's coastal city of Xiamen, Shandong Province's coastal city of Qingdao, Hubei Province's capital city of Wuhan, and Yunnan Province's capital city of Kunming will also implement the policy on New Year's Day.