China's immigration authorities inspect over 20.84 million cross-border vehicles in H1

China's immigration authorities inspected 20.844 million inbound and outbound vehicles in the first half of the year, up 17.1 percent from last year, the National Immigration Administration said at a press briefing on Friday.

The number included 490,000 aircraft, 56,000 trains, 229,000 ships, and 20.068 million motor vehicles, rising one percent, 5.7 percent, 4.6 percent, and 17.8 percent, respectively, said the administration.

During the same period, the administration issued 10.392 million ordinary passports and 49.585 million travel endorsements for mainland residents traveling to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), the Macao Special Administrative Region (Macao SAR) and Taiwan region. It also issued 1.104 million permits for residents of the HKSAR, the Macao SAR and Taiwan region to visit the mainland, and 991,000 visas or permits for foreign nationals.

China's total box office of this year has exceeded 18 billion yuan (about 2.65 billion U.S. dollars) as of Thursday.

The box office for the summer movie season has exceeded 2.288 billion yuan (about 336.82 million U.S. dollars).

Nearly 90 Chinese and foreign films are expected to hit theaters during the summer season, which runs from June 1 to August 31. The movies span a wide range of genres from comedy and history to science fiction and animation.

The comedy lineup includes Hong Kong director Stephen Chow's highly anticipated "Kung Fu Soccer," which is set to be released on Saturday, as well as sci-fi comedy film "Keep Real" and "It's My Time," a biographical sports comedy-drama starring Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh Choo-Kheng.

Animated movies scheduled for the summer season include adventure feature film "All Wishes Come True," comedy detective film "Demon Agent," and epic film "Three Kingdoms: The Beginning," which was officially released on Friday.

Meanwhile, Universal's "Minions and Monsters" debuted in China last Friday, and Hollywood animated film "Toy Story 5," which hit Chinese cinemas during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday in June, remains popular among moviegoers.