Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, reported 84,000 entries of foreigners coming under the visa-free policy in 2025, a 212-percent increase from 2024, according to the city's border inspection station.
The border inspection station also said that in 2025, the airports in Nanjing inspected a total of 20,300 inbound and outbound flights and nearly three million inbound and outbound passengers, representing year-on-year increases of 2.9 percent and 4.49 percent, respectively.
In 2025, Nanjing launched new flights to and from multiple cities across the world, including Paris and Bangkok.
The city's inbound travel boom is a result of China's broader effort to attract more foreign travelers to the country.
China saw 40.6 million inbound arrivals in 2025 since rolling out its 240-hour visa-free transit program, up 27.2 percent year on year, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Security announced on Thursday.
The spokesperson added that travelers using the visa-free scheme jumped 60.8 percent year on year compared with pre-policy revision levels.
First launched in December 2024, the program now applies to 55 eligible countries.
Visa-free foreign entries to Nanjing grow 212 percent
China's two major power grid operators -- the State Grid Corporation of China (State Grid) and China Southern Power Grid (CSG) -- reported a surge in investment in the first quarter of 2026, underscoring efforts to strengthen infrastructure construction and support high-quality socioeconomic development in China.
The State Grid said it completed fixed-asset investment worth 129 billion yuan (about 18.77 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three months of this year, up 37 percent the corresponding period of the previous year. The spending has driven more than 250 billion yuan (36 billion U.S. dollars) of investment across the wider industrial chain.
Key projects such as the Panxi ultra-high-voltage (UHV) alternating current (AC) line and the Anhui-Hubei back-to-back direct current (DC) project have seen ground broken for their construction, while several west-to-east power transmission projects have been upgraded.
Investment in connecting renewable energy generation to the grid was reported to have exceeded 10 billion yuan (1.45 billion U.S. dollars) from January to March, a year-on-year rise of more than 50 percent.
The CSG also reported robust growth in investment in the three-month period, with fixed-asset investment reaching 38.45 billion yuan (5.58 billion U.S. dollars), up about 50 percent from a year earlier.
Among its achievements, the company completed and commissioned 80 key projects, including the 220 kV cross-sea power grid interconnection project, which was officially put into operation on March 20. The project ended years of grid isolation on the Weizhou Island in south China by linking it to the main power system of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The construction of 17 other major energy projects, including one linking the power grid of the Xizang Autonomous Region in southwest China with that of Guangdong Province in south China, is advancing rapidly. These projects are expected to bolster regional industries, the maritime economy, digital collaboration and the transition to green energy.
"By accelerating major project construction, investment during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) is expected to approach 1 trillion yuan (145 billion U.S. dollars), driving a further 2 trillion yuan (290 billion U.S. dollars) of investment across upstream and downstream industries," said Dong Yanle, deputy general manager of the Engineering Construction Department under the China Southern Power Grid.
China ramps up power grid investment in January-March to boost growth
