The robotic craft ignited one of its engines to "make an orbital correction" Friday and was expected to slow down before being "captured by Martian gravity" around February 10, the agency said.
The five-tonne Tianwen-1 includes a Mars orbiter, a lander and a rover that will study the planet's soil.
China hopes to ultimately land the rover in May in Utopia, a massive impact basin on Mars.
After watching the United States and the Soviet Union lead the way during the Cold War, China has poured billions of dollars into its military-led space programme.
It has made huge strides in the past decade, sending a human into space in 2003.
The Asian powerhouse has laid the groundwork to assemble a space station by 2022 and gain a permanent foothold in Earth orbit.
But Mars has proved a challenging target so far, with most missions sent by the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and India to the planet since 1960 ending in failure.
Tianwen-1 is not China's first attempt to reach Mars.
A previous mission with Russia in 2011 ended prematurely as the launch failed.
China has already sent two rovers to the Moon. With the second, China became the first country to make a successful soft landing on the far side.
All systems on the Tianwen-1 probe are in "good condition," CNSA said Friday.
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