A tour group on Wednesday afternoon landed in south China's Hainan Province, marking the first group of overseas visitors to enjoy a new 144-hour visa-free entry policy issued by the country.
According to China's National Immigration Administration (NIA), people from countries with diplomatic relations with China can visit the southern island province visa-free for 144 hours via tour groups registered in Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.
Effective on Tuesday, the policy applies to all state-established open ports in the province and the travel scope is limited to the administrative region of Hainan.
Currently, the province boasts the most favorable visa-free entry policies in China, with more than 80 percent of the foreign tourists enter visa-free.
According to the NIA, it will continue to optimize and improve regional visa-free entry policies, further advance a more open immigration management system and warmly welcome foreign nationals to visit China.
"Foreign tour groups can enter via tour groups within the stipulated 144-hour period. If any visitor of the tour group needs to leave the group for personal reasons, they can apply to the provincial immigration management authorities. After going through certain procedures, they can exit the country individually," said Rao Jun, a border check official with the Haikou General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection.
1st tour group lands in Hainan under latest visa-free policy
U.S. stock futures continue to plummet on Sunday night and Asian stock markets close lower on Monday, as financial turmoil sparked by the U.S. President Donald Trump's "reciprocal tariffs" has escalated recession fears worldwide.
In the U.S., the E-Mini Dow Continuous Contract, E-Mini Standard and Poor's 500 Future Continuous Contract and E-Mini Nasdaq 100 Index Continuous Contract sank as much as 4.72 percent, 5.48 percent and 6.15 percent at one point.
Still, losses narrowed materially afterward with the futures of E-Mini Dow, Standard and Poor's 500 and Nasdaq down 2.63 percent, 3.14 percent and 3.85 percent, respectively, as of 17:45 eastern time (0145 GMT).
The U.S. stock market plunged on both Thursday and Friday with Standard and Poor's 500 Index down 10.53 percent in the last two sessions and Nasdaq Composite Index diving into the bear market.
Statistics show that the capitalization of U.S. stocks shed as much as 5.4 trillion U.S. dollars in the last two sessions.
Investors' confidence tumbled after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday on the so-called "reciprocal tariffs," imposing a 10-percent "minimum baseline tariff" and higher rates on certain trading partners.
As for Asia, Hong Kong's stock market cratered on Monday with the benchmark Hang Seng Index down 13.22 percent to close at 19,828.3 points.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index tumbled 13.75 percent to end at 7,262.72 points, and the Hang Seng Tech Index plunged 17.16 percent to 4,401.51 points.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock index, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average, slid 2,644 points, or 7.83 percent, on Monday from Friday to end at 31,136.58, marking the index's third-largest drop on record, after briefly losing as much as 8.8 percent.
South Korea's benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) lost 137.22 points, or 5.57 percent, to close at 2,328.20.
US, Asian markets rattled by Trump tariff shock
