Foreign visitors get tourism New Year off to a flying start

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By Yang Feiyue (China Daily) 08:28, January 13, 2025

(Song Chen/China Daily)

Takemoto Akitoshi decided to act on his New Year wish after he learned China had waived visa applications for Japanese travelers in late November.

"I've long looked forward to visiting China, especially now that I have time on my hands after retirement," said Akitoshi, aged in his 70s and from Tokyo.

He had planned to apply for a visa, and was thrilled to be spared the trouble.

"It was a smooth arrival," said Akitoshi who traveled with his wife to the country for the first time, and celebrated the arrival of the new year in Beijing.

He said he was stunned by the hutong alleys, Central Axis, Palace Museum, and Great Wall.

"It's impressive that the city has so many world cultural heritage sites, and you can get a good taste of the profound history," he said.

He hiked on the Mutianyu Great Wall to watch the sunrise on the first day of the year, observed giant pandas at close quarters at the Beijing Zoo and savored distinctive dishes including roast duck and mutton hotpot.

The couple, along with 20 other Japanese travelers, were among the first overseas tourists to visit China without visas in 2025.

"It marked a good beginning," said Xie Lin, an inbound tour guide based in Beijing who received the Japanese travelers.

He said many Japanese travelers have shown a strong desire to visit China and experience Chinese culture with the recent advent of the visa-free policy. "Many of them wanted to come as soon as possible," Xie noted.

Sweet deals

The capital is one of the major cities across the country that have benefited from a slew of favorable policies to stimulate inbound tourism.

From January to October, the city welcomed 3.17 million inbound tourists, a 198.8 percent surge over the same period the previous year, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism reported.

The growth in inbound tourism is partly attributed to the optimization of visa-free and transit visa-free policies, according to the "2024 Beijing Tourism Consumption Report "by Tongcheng Travel, a major domestic travel agency based in Jiangsu province. Spain, Malaysia, Italy, Indonesia and Thailand have significantly benefited from the optimization of visa policies, the report said.

In recent years, authorities have continuously sweetened deals to woo inbound travelers.

In December 2023, the country implemented a visa-free policy for passport holders from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia.

Since then, more countries have been included. To date, ordinary passport holders from 38 countries can enter China without a visa for business, tourism, visiting relatives and friends, exchange visits, and have a transit period of no more than 30 days.

China also announced in mid-December further relaxations of the visa-free transit policy, with extension of foreign travelers' period of stay, and expansion of the list of accessible ports and provincial-level regions.

Eligible travelers transiting to a third country or region will be permitted to stay in the country for up to 240 hours, or 10 days, up from 72 or 144 hours, according to the National Immigration Administration.

Those favorable policies have given rise to the growing eagerness of international tourists to visit the country.

See the sights, feel all right

Dou Junjie, who has arranged cycling tours to Beijing's historical and cultural areas such as the Central Axis and hutong alleys for over a decade, said the number of his guests from abroad doubled last year.

"European guests have been in the majority, and they have shown great enthusiasm for the Central Axis and Peking Opera," Dou said.

From January to November 2024, 29.21 million foreigners entered the country, an increase of 86.2 percent year-on-year, the immigration administration reported.

It added that 17.45 million of them took advantage of the transit visa exemption policy to visit the country, an increase of 123.3 percent year-on-year.

On New Year's Day, the immigration administration tracked 185,000 entries and exits of foreign nationals, up 33.6 percent on the same period last year.

On Jan 1, more than 300 South Korean tourists arrived via a cruise ship in Yantai in East China's Shandong province for a three-day trip.

Electronic self-service entry cards have been developed for foreigners, biometric data collection equipment has been set up in advance, and the information collection and inspection processes optimized to further improve the efficiency of customs clearance, said Sun Feixiang, an official with Yantai border inspection station.

Wuzhen water town in Jiaxing, East China's Zhejiang province, received 26 Thai travelers on the same day.

Signs in its major scenic areas have both Chinese and English explanations. Dedicated tour guides who speak English, Thai, and Japanese are also available to help inbound travelers.