As China's industrialization accelerates, the PM_2.5 pollution problem is becoming increasingly severe, particularly due to the significant increase in PM_2.5 emissions from the expansion of energy-intensive industries. While many studies have focused on the sources and management of PM_2.5, quantifying the PM_2.5 footprints of provinces and systematically analyzing the pathways of its transfer across regions remains an area worthy of further exploration. A multi-regional input-output model was employed to quantify the consumption PM_2.5 footprint (PF_P), production PM_2.5 footprint (PF_C), and inter-provincial transfer of embodied PM_2.5 footprint (EPF) in mainland China from 2007 to 2017. The results show that both PF_P and PF_C exhibit an increasing and then decreasing trend, with PF_P consistently being larger than PF_C. The contribution of provinces to PF varies significantly, with most provinces exporting more than half of their local PF_P as EPF, and one-third of the provinces needing to import EPF to meet their development demands. Meanwhile, the center of gravity of China's EPF transfer abroad is shifting from the coast to the interior. In terms of sectoral contribution, manufacturing, the production and supply of electricity, heat, gas and water have always been the main sources of PF_P during the study period. This shows that it is crucial to continuously optimize air pollution control policies according to the characteristics of different provinces.