Immigration management departments across the country have inspected and verified 163 million cross-border passenger trips in the first quarter this year, a 15.3 percent year-on-year increase, the National Immigration Administration revealed on Tuesday.

Of these trips, more than 17.4 million were made by foreigners, a 33.4 percent increase compared with the same period last year, the administration's spokesman Lin Yongsheng said at an online news conference.

Residents on the Chinese mainland made 80.27 million passenger trips, and residents in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan made 65.72 million trips, both seeing a more than 10 percent year-on-year increase.

The administration improved the country's visa-free transit policy significantly in December last year by granting a 10-day visa-free stay for citizens from 54 countries who make a transit in China.

To enjoy the policy, these people can enter China through 60 ports and stay in 24 provincial-level regions.

"The expanded visa-free transit policy, in coordination with other visa exemption policies, contributed to a significant increase in the number of foreign travelers to China," Lin said.

By March 31 this year, the number of incoming foreign travelers received by ports across the country had increased by about 40 percent to more than 9.2 million, according to Lin. Of these people, about 71 percent came to China visa-free.