Russian arrivals hit record highs in Guangzhou amid extended visa-free scheme
During the daily lunch service earlier this month, shelves in one delicatessen-style Guangzhou eatery were lined with black bread, sausages and pickled vegetables – hardly the mainstay of Chinese cuisine. But customers were coming and going at Katusha Restaurant, a 22-year-old establishment. Some di
By He Huifeng
During the daily lunch service earlier this month, shelves in one delicatessen-style Guangzhou eatery were lined with black bread, sausages and pickled vegetables – hardly the mainstay of Chinese cuisine.
But customers were coming and going at Katusha Restaurant, a 22-year-old establishment. Some discussed travel plans, others spoke about business opportunities with Chinese factories. Like the food, the customers were Russians, a nationality that has become more visible in Guangdong because of a 9-month-old visa-free entry scheme.
“We are seeing far more Russian guests than before,” said Li Muzi, who runs the venue. “At peak hours, they often make up more than half of all roughly 50 to 60 customers.”
The momentum is likely to continue. Last month, the Chinese government extended the coverage period for the visa-free entry of Russian citizens until the end of 2027.
Ordinary passport holders from Russia can stay visa-free for up to 30 days for business, tourism, visiting friends or family, or on transit.
Official data underlined the scale of the rebound. Guangzhou’s Baiyun airport, a major air hub for southern China, reported more than 210,000 Russian entries and exits in the first five months of 2026, up 110 per cent year on year – marking a historic high for the period, according to state media Guangzhou Daily.
More than 100,000 of these entries were visa-free, with tourism and business cited as the main drivers, the report said.
Flight capacity between Guangzhou and Russia has also expanded, with direct services increasing to around 19 per week, according to state-run chinanews.com, citing Baiyun airport’s entry-exit border inspection station.
“They felt very relaxed travelling and living in China because Chinese people are very friendly to Russians,” restaurant owner Li said. “Guangzhou is also relatively affordable. The average spend in our restaurant is about 100 yuan (US$14.80) per person, less than the price of a single dish in Europe.”
In the 1980s and 1990s, Russians frequently travelled to Guangdong as small-scale “shuttle” traders, sourcing products to sell in Russia, while Russian tourists were drawn to Hainan Island.
Data from the provincial government of Hainan showed that more than 500,000 Russian tourists visited in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 120 per cent and more than one-third of the province’s inbound tourism market.
On Chinese social media platforms such as RedNote, local tour guides have shared their experience handling Russian-language group tours, indicating a rise in tour group jobs tied to inbound arrivals.
A Guangzhou-based blogger, Allen Timur, posted that he had joined 24 other guides in May when more than 1,000 Russian tourists were travelling across Guangzhou and eastern China.
“This time I led a group of 33, a journey packed with memories,” said the 21-year-old Chinese national, who speaks Russian and earned US$200 a day for the tour.
Tourist arrivals from other places were rising as well, according to local media reports.
As of June 6, the number of foreign passengers entering China via the Shenzhen airport since the start of the year had increased by 33.9 per cent year on year, covering travellers from 190 countries and regions, official data showed. Visa-free arrivals accounted for 63.2 per cent, up 47.1 per cent year-on-year.