Foreign tourists wait to board a high-speed train at Luoyang Longmen Railway Station in Luoyang, Central China"s Henan Province, on May 1, 2026.

　　More foreign visitors are choosing to explore China by rail as visa-free policies continue to expand. China"s railways handled 12.31 million foreign passengers in the first half of the year, up 33.6 percent year-on-year, according to the latest data from China State Railway Group.

　　China"s railways handled 2.348 billion passenger trips in the first half of the year, up 5.0 percent year-on-year and a record high for the same period. To meet rising travel demand, China State Railway Group used ticketing and waitlist booking data from the 12306 platform to adjust capacity, with an average of 11,468 passenger trains operating daily, up 630 trains or 5.8 percent increase year-on-year.

　　Cross-border rail travel also continued to grow. In the first half of the year, the China-Laos Railway handled 188,000 cross-border passenger trips, up 25.9 percent year-on-year. The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed railway handled 16.962 million cross-border passenger trips, up 13.8 percent. China also operated international passenger trains linking China with Russia, Vietnam, Mongolia and North Korea to facilitate cross-border exchanges and economic cooperation, according to China State Railway Group.

　　Meanwhile, railway authorities successfully handled travel demand during major holidays, including the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, May Day and Dragon Boat Festival holidays, with multiple passenger records set. On May 1, China"s railways recorded a daily high of 24.844 million passenger trips.