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BEIJING/GUANGZHOU — China's inbound tourism witnessed significant growth during the eight-day National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, fueled by visa facilitation policies and a rich array of cultural and tourism activities.

Beijing welcomed 25 million visitors during the holiday, generating tourism revenue of 31.65 billion yuan ($4.45 billion), with those figures up 3.6 percent and 4.7 percent year-on-year, according to the city's culture and tourism authority.

Notably, Beijing hosted some 119,000 overseas arrivals — a remarkable increase of 48 percent compared to the same period last year. Their spending totaled 1.23 billion yuan, up 54.1 percent year-on-year.

Popular destinations among overseas visitors included Beijing Universal Resort, the Palace Museum, the Mutianyu and Badaling sections of the Great Wall, and the famed commercial districts of Sanlitun and Wangfujing. The city's duty-free shops saw sales exceed 22 million yuan during the holiday, more than doubling last year's figure.

Foreign tourists also immersed themselves in a rich variety of cultural activities during the holiday. Beijing alone organized over 4,200 cultural and tourism events, as well as nearly 100 travel routes for the holiday, featuring diverse themes such as the Great Wall, the Grand Canal and the city's Central Axis, which proved popular among residents and tourists alike.

South China's Guangdong province — a major economic hub — also experienced a substantial rise in international travelers during the holiday, thanks to the country's ever-improving visa-free travel policies.