The number of people going in and out of China's ports hit a record high of 107.89 million in the first half of the year, a year-on-year rise of 12.07 per cent, the Ministry of Public Security announced Monday.
Statistics from the ministry's Bureau of Exit and Entry Administration revealed that people going in and out of the nation in the first six months of the year were 14.61 million from the Chinese mainland, up 34.12 per cent.
There are 77.58 million from
Hong Kong and
Macau special administrative regions (SARs), an 8.6-per cent rise; 3.51 million from Taiwan, a 2.95 per cent increase; and 12.19 millions foreigners, 15.8 per cent more compared with last year.
A total of 7.35 million Chinese went abroad to 226 countries and regions for work, sightseeing, conferences and study, an increase of 33.78 per cent compared with last year.
The top 10 destinations for people of the Chinese mainland were Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Japan, Russia, South Korea, the United States, Singapore, Viet Nam and Australia.
Meanwhile, 6.14 million foreigners from 234 countries and regions entered China in the first half of the year, up 15.97 per cent.
The leading 10 countries from which people enter China are Japan, South Korea, Russia, the United States, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Mongolia, Thailand and Britain.
Among the country's 221 ports, the leading five with the largest volume of exit and entry were Luohu, Gongbei, Huanggang,
Beijing Capital International Airport and Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai.
On April 4, a total of 343,600 people entered and exited through the Luohu port in
Shenzhen of South China's Guangdong Province, setting a new record among the ports in a single day, according to the statistics.
People are finding it easier nowadays to exit and enter the Chinese border, as the nation has adopted, and will continue to adopt, a series of policies, said officials with the bureau.
The application for SAR visas was made simpler for mainlanders from June 1 to meet the increasing demand of economic, cultural and personnel exchanges.
Statistics from the Ministry of Public Security indicated that, last year, more than 2.46 million mainlanders entered into and exited from the SARs - three times that of 1997.
Sources with the Ministry of Public Security also indicated exit and entry departments discovered and dealt with 27,300 people who violated relevant regulations and laws, including 2,517 human smugglers and criminal suspects who tried to flee abroad.
