BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China's National Immigration Administration (NIA) announced Thursday that border ports had processed over 141 million inbound and outbound trips in the first quarter this year.

This marks an increase of over 117 percent from the same period of last year, the administration said in a statement.

Among the cross-border trips, over 69.54 million were made by Chinese mainland residents and more than 59.11 million were made by residents from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, the statement said.

It added that the number also included over 13 million trips made by foreign nationals, a 305 percent increase compared to the same period in 2023.

Moreover, the NIA has handled 7.35 million cross-border trips made by transport vehicles, including planes, trains, ships, and motor vehicles.

The NIA said that it launched a series of entry and exit policies in the first quarter, streamlining policies regarding regional visa-free entry, visa-free transit and port visas. During this period, it issued around 466,000 visa documents for foreign nationals and granted over 1.98 million foreign travelers visa-free entry, up by 118.8 percent and 266.1 percent respectively.

Over the same period, the administration investigated over 10,000 criminal cases concerning offenses against border control, captured over 14,000 suspects, cracked 213 relevant criminal rings and closed 53 sites used for illegal transit.

It has also nabbed 256 people in 200 drug-related cases and investigated smuggling cases involving items worth over 110 million yuan (about 15.5 million U.S. dollars).