Starting from March 2024, China and Thailand will permanently exempt each other from visas

 Direct translation

Starting from March this year, China and Thailand will permanently exempt each other from visas

Reporter : Luo Tingting / Editor : Xia He / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2024/01/02/a103839476.html / Image : China and Thailand will implement a permanent mutual visa-free entry policy from March 1, 2024. The picture shows Chinese tourists in Bangkok, Thailand. Data map. (Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP via Getty Images)

On 2 January 2024, local time, the Prime Minister of Thailand told the media that China and Thailand will implement a permanent mutual visa-free entry policy from 1 March 2024, which means that people traveling to and from the two countries will not require visa for entance and exit.

Thailand's Prime Minister and Finance Minister Seth Thaksin said at a press conference after attending the cabinet meeting that Thailand's visa-free entry policy for Chinese tourists will expire on 29 February 2024. After communication and negotiation between China and Thailand, the two sides China will implement a permanent visa-free entry policy from 1 March 2024.

It is foreseeable that this permanent visa-free policy will attract more Chinese to travel or settle in Thailand. Thailand is a country that relies heavily on tourism, and Chinese tourists have always been one of Thailand's largest consumer groups.

At present, China's investment and employment situation are not optimistic. A large number of Chinese wealthy people are leaving and transferring their assets overseas. Many middle-class Chinese have also fled China to work and live in other countries.

On the Chinese messaging app WeChat, searches for "immigration" surged in 2023, with single-day searches reaching 510 million in October, while single-day searches for "immigrate to Thailand" exceeded 300,000 at the end of January.

With China's economic recession, the number of Chinese tourists visiting European and American countries has decreased significantly. Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan, which have relatively lower prices than European and American countries, have become popular countries for Chinese immigrants. Among them, Chiang Mai, Thailand, with low prices, has become the first choice city for Chinese people.

Reuters once reported that Thai real estate agent Owen Zhu said that in the past, Chinese buyers mainly purchased houses for investment, but "after the epidemic, the situation has changed a lot. Most Chinese people choose to buy luxury apartments to live in."

He said that many Chinese customers hope to buy a luxury apartment worth 2 million RMB in Bangkok. This money can only buy a simple house in China's first-tier cities, and the location may not be very good.

"Therefore, some people will sell a house in China and buy a property here to retire." Owen Zhu said.

In addition, the high-quality education of Thai international schools has also attracted many Chinese families with children. They bought mansions, sent their children to a Thai international school, and settled their families in Thailand.