Xiamen Port in east China's Fujian Province saw a surge in foreign passenger trips to a record high of 1 million arrivals and departures from January 1 to 10:00 on Wednesday, according to data released by the Gaoqi Border Inspection Sub-Station of the Xiamen Border Inspection General Station.
Since the beginning of this year, Xiamen Port has handled over 5.5 million passenger trips, with entries and exits made by foreigners topping 1 million for the first time since its opening to civil aviation, marking a historic high.
Data show that more than 330,000 foreign travelers have entered China via Xiamen Port so far this year under China's visa-free policy, up more than 35 percent year-on-year.
Travelers from Malaysia and Singapore topped visitors from other countries, with tourism and family visits accounting for over 60 percent of the arrivals.
Since the beginning of 2025, Xiamen's Gaoqi International Airport's border inspection point has issued 24-hour and 240-hour temporary entry permits to over 12,000 foreign passengers, while providing 24-hour direct transit service without border inspection procedures to nearly 160,000 travelers from more than 142 other countries.
Xiamen Port in east China sees surge in foreign passenger trips
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to invest 38.3 billion U.S. dollars as to the end of 2026 to purchase and renovate additional detention facilities for undocumented immigrants, amid a sharp rise in arrests over the past year.
According to the ICE Detention Reengineering Initiative released Friday by the office of Kelly Ayotte, governor of the U.S. state of New Hampshire, ICE intends to buy 16 buildings and convert them into small-scale detention centers to expand custody capacity. The facilities are expected to be put into use by November, 2026.
Each facility would accommodate between 1,000 and 1,500 people, with an average detention period of three to seven days.
Meanwhile, the document says that the ICE also plans to establish eight large-scale detention centers, each capable of holding 7,000 to 10,000 detainees, with an average detention duration of about 60 days.
The document points out that the ICE is to recruit 12,000 additional law enforcement personnel for a potential surge in arrests and consequently, increased demand for detention facilities.
U.S. government data shows that the number of individuals detained by ICE has increased by approximately 74 percent since the current U.S. administration assumed office in January 2025.
ICE to invest 38.3 bln USD for new detention centers
