Photo: Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian

Asked about a media report that during this year's Spring Festival, the top destination for Chinese outbound tourists will be the Republic of Korea (ROK) amid the "Korean Wave" and that the ROK's visa-free policy is believed to have played a role in this situation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Monday that great efforts in facilitating cross-border travel enhance mutual understanding and exchanges between the people of China and the ROK.

China also welcomes more friends from the ROK to visit China and celebrate the Spring Festival here, Lin added. 

Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Dai Bing on Monday welcomed global friends, including those from South Korea, to celebrate the festival in China.

In his account on X, he said that Monday was the first day of China's Spring Festival travel rush in 2026. Data from travel platforms shows that in the past two weeks, foreign tourists' bookings for flights during the Spring Festival have surged by more than 400 percent year-on-year. This indirectly indicates that "coming to China to spend the Spring Festival" is becoming a new global trend. 

The Spring Festival carries universal emotions of reunion, praying for blessings, bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new—feelings that transcend language and national borders. We warmly welcome friends from all countries, including South Korea, to come to China and celebrate this wonderful festival together, Dai said. 

Bloomberg reported on January 27 that bookings estimates and flight data show South Korea is on track to overtake Japan as the top destination for Chinese travelers during the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some 230,000 to 250,000 Chinese mainland visitors are expected to arrive in South Korea for the nine-day holiday starting on February 15, Bloomberg reported, citing data from market researcher China Trading Desk. The report said that would be a jump of as much as 52 percent over last year's break, which was a day shorter.

In a release sent to the Global Times on Monday, China Eastern Airlines said that flights from Shanghai to Busan achieved passenger load factors exceeding 90 percent on the first day of the Spring Festival travel season.

According to data from the information platform Flight Master released on January 5, the weekly flight volume from the Chinese mainland to South Korea had increased for four consecutive weeks. In the first week of 2026, the number of flights from the Chinese mainland to South Korea exceeded 1,000, reaching 1,012, ranking first among international routes and recovering to 97.2 percent of the 2019 level.

Data showed that as of December 2025, there were 64 routes between the Chinese mainland and South Korea. 

Global Times