China announced on Friday the extension of its visa-exemption policy to nine more countries, including Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, and Japan, starting from the end of this month to the end of 2025.

This is aimed at facilitating more cross-border exchanges.

Other countries listed in the trial measures are Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Estonia and Latvia.

In addition, China has decided to further optimize its visa-free policy, including exchanges and visit purposes into the scope of visa-free entry, and extend the period of visa-free stays allowed from the current 15 days to 30 days, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a daily news conference.

"Starting from Nov 30, 2024, ordinary passports holders from 38 visa-free countries, including the above nine countries, can enter China without a visa for business, tourism, visiting relatives and friends, exchange visits and transit for no more than 30 days," Lin said.

Half an hour after the announcement, searches for destinations in China on online travel agency Ctrip.com's overseas platforms surged, with a 112 percent increase on the Japanese site, according to media reports.

There was a sharp rise in interest for direct flights from various Japanese cities to Chinese destinations.

Over the past year, China has signed mutual visa-exemption agreements with six countries, including Singapore, Thailand and Kazakhstan, taking the number of countries that have comprehensive mutual visa-free arrangements with China to 25, Tong Xuejun, deputy director-general of consular affairs at the Foreign Ministry, said on Friday.

China has established mutual visa-free agreements with 157 countries and regions covering various types of passports, Tong said in a press briefing.

Since this year, China has also reached agreements with countries such as Brazil and Australia to mutually issue 10-year and five-year multiple-entry visas, he said, adding that five-year multiple-entry visas have also been issued to citizens from Central and Eastern European countries.

China is actively participating in the APEC Business Travel Card program to facilitate travel for business people in the Asia-Pacific region, he said.

China has also optimized visa-application procedures such as introducing a simplified version of the visa application form and canceling visa appointments, he said.

The country will provide more convenience for both Chinese and foreign citizens, particularly business people, to support high-quality development and high-standard opening up, he added.

Official statistics showed that in the third quarter of this year, foreign entries into China reached 8.19 million, an increase of 48.8 percent year-on-year. Among these, about 4.885 million trips were made with visa exemptions.