New UK visa center opens in Beijing

The new UK visa application center in Beijing officially opened its doors on Wednesday after undergoing its biggest makeover thus far.

Famous Chinese TV host and "Creativity is GREAT" Ambassador Chen Luyu presided over the opening ceremony.

UK Minister of Culture, Communications and Creative Industries Ed Vaizey said that he expected the number of visitors from China to grow in the near future.

"The new application center will make the process of applying for a visa much more comfortable, much more pleasurable and will also demonstrate the importance we place on encouraging people from China to visit our country, " he said.

Last year, the UK issued more than 365,000 visas to the Chinese nationals, he added. "96 percent of visa applications were successful."

The center now offers three-to-five days priority visa service, so-called "prime time" appointments outside of the usual business hours and is set to launch the super-priority 24-hour visa service this June, said the minister.

The center has doubled in size and increased its capacity aiming to reduce waiting times as well as to make the start of the journey to the UK more relaxed.

Guo Shaochun, deputy director-general of the Consular Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, offered his congratulations to the opening of the visa application center and believed it would surely better serve Chinese applicants.

He said the British government's continuing efforts in simplifying the visa application process will better serve those Chinese citizens planning to visit the UK and help promote the people-to-people exchanges between China and the UK.

The numbers of Chinese visitors to the UK has been rising steadily since 2009. The UK saw a record number of visa applications from Chinese nationals in 2013, up 31 percent year-on-year.