Two travelers take a selfie on the MSC Bellissima cruise ship on August 27, 2026. Photo: Huang Lanlan/GT

At the Yangtze River Estuary, Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal wakes to the dawn. In late August, the 172,000-ton MSC Bellissima glided slowly into berth, its massive silhouette emerging through the morning haze.

As the gangway was lowered, passengers began filing down in steady succession. Fourteen-year-old Russian girl Nonna walked hand in hand with her parents, following the flow of travelers toward the arrival hall. It was her first time in Shanghai.

In the inspection corridor, she handed over her passport to an immigration officer. In moments, the family had completed their entry formalities.

"Very fast," Nonna told the Global Times in the hall. "[It took about] only 20 seconds."

This kind of seamless entry is now the norm at the Wusongkou terminal, which is a major part of Shanghai's cruise-port network, Asia's largest cruise home port. 

As China continues to expand the scope of its visa-free policies, inbound cruise tourism has been given a powerful boost. In the first half of 2026, more than 50,000 foreign visitors entered China via cruise routes, up 36.7 percent year on year, according to data provided by Shanghai General Station of Immigration Inspection 
The terminal is becoming a "water golden gateway" for inbound tourism, said Zhou Jun, commander of the Pujiang Immigration Inspection Station. 

"One of our main goals is to help travelers from all over the world enter more quickly and smoothly, so they can see more of Shanghai and gain a better experience in China," Zhou told the Global Times.

A cruise ship sails on the Huangpu River in Shanghai. Photo: Courtesy of Pujiang Immigration Inspection Station

Smooth process

For Nonna's family, this trip was purely for sightseeing. They arrived by ferry and planned to spend two days in Shanghai.

When asked where she wanted to go, Nonna said, "Maybe Yuyuan Garden?" She added that she was curious about Chinese food and wanted to try various kinds of snacks and fruits.

Such wishes are easy to fulfill, thanks to the smooth immigration clearance process.

The MSC Bellissima had sailed in from Busan, South Korea. According to a local immigration officer on duty that day, the vessel carried about 5,000 passengers, including roughly 860 foreign travelers.

Because of the severe weather that day, the ship did not dock until 2 am, and it had to depart at 3 pm the same day to avoid the typhoon. That meant more than 5,000 arriving passengers had to be cleared within just over two hours, after which another 5,000 or so passengers would need to board with equal efficiency.

How was this made possible?

According to the Pujiang Immigration Inspection Station, it had developed a tailor-made inspection plan for each docking cruise ship, and streamlined the process with its self-developed management system. In some special cases, immigration officers would even board the vessel in advance to collect and verify passenger information, before the ship had fully docked, saving as much time as possible.

"Before, a lot of things were checked manually. Foreign passengers had to have their fingerprints taken and fill out arrival cards, which took several minutes," Wang Yuan, an immigration officer at the station, told the Global Times. "Now, the entire process has been greatly simplified - foreign passengers on the same cruise trip will be exempt from fingerprint collection, and arrival cards can be completed online."

At a border inspection channel at the Wusongkou terminal, the Global Times reporter observed that for Chinese travelers, after they disembarked and entered the arrival hall, passengers only needed to hand over their "expedited clearance code" and passports to the immigration officers at the front desks. After a face-to-face identity verification, the information check was completed almost instantly. On average, the process took only a few seconds per person.

An immigration officer returns the identification documents to an inbound visitor at Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal. Photo: Courtesy of Pujiang Immigration Inspection Station

'1st stop' for China trip

Around noon, Anglese Alessandro, an Italian staffer with MSC Cruises, emerged from the immigration checkpoint. In recent years, his job has brought him to Shanghai many times. 

"On my previous few trips, entry was very fast. Only took a minute or two," Alessandro told the Global Times, praising the overall efficiency of Shanghai's ports in recent years and calling the process "very convenient."

Foreign cruise passengers entering China are no longer rare visitors - they are increasingly becoming regular faces. Helen Huang Ruiling, president of MSC Cruises China, offered more concrete numbers. She said that before 2020, more than 95 percent of MSC's sailings departing from China were taken by Chinese passengers. Following the resumption of international cruise ship services in 2023, the share of international travelers has been rising, even surpassing 50 percent on some summer sailings this year. 

This shift has come about naturally as policy support has been in place. China's National Immigration Administration has rolled out a series of supporting measures to promote the cruise industry, including visa-free entry policy for foreign tourist groups traveling by cruise ships, which became effective in May 2024. In Shanghai, according to estimates, by the first quarter of 2026, foreign travelers accounted for more than 10 percent of passengers at the Wusongkou terminal.

"In the past, many foreign visitors to China had to arrange their visas long in advance. Now, some of them can truly set off on a whim," Huang told the Global Times. "Now some guests even book a cruise departing from Shanghai only three to five days ahead of time - something that would have been unimaginable before."

In the afternoon, slanting sunlight poured through the glass curtain wall of the arrival hall of the Wusongkou terminal. Passengers continued to pass through the lanes in an orderly and efficient flow, completing verification and clearance with ease.

"Before, some foreign travelers said they saw Shanghai only as a transit stop," said Wang. "Now they tell us that, because entering Shanghai is so convenient, they choose it as the first stop for their China trips."