So 'city'! Visa-free policy sparks off China Travel

"China turns out to be so 'City'!" "Who let us know China is still in the last century?" ... Many foreigners, especially Westerners, who have previously traveled to China have broken their stereotypical impression.

On Aug. 18, Liu Haitao, deputy director of the National Immigration Administration, said at a press conference that the recent "China Travel" has exploded all over the Internet, and the scope of application of the 144-hour visa-free transit policy has increased to 37 ports of entry and 54 countries, with 17,254,000 foreign arrivals at various ports of entry from January to July this year, a year-on-year increase of 129.9%. Overseas bloggers active on social media have been traveling around the country, exclaiming, "This is the real China!"

The 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) adopted a resolution on further deepening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernization at its third plenary session, stating that China will continue to open up and improve the system of convenience for foreigners entering the country in terms of residency, medical care and payment. A more open, more "City" and more fascinating China is welcoming more international friends with open arms.

Seeing is believing, eliminating prejudice against China.

"As of 6 July, data from the TikTok platform showed that there were 41,000 and 13,000 video entries for #chinatravel and #chinatrip respectively, while the #chinatravel topic on the Douyin platform had reached 190 million plays.

Since November last year, nearly 40 ports of entry in 18 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) have implemented the 72/144-hour visa-free policy for members of 54 countries, including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Citizens holding valid international travel documents such as ordinary passports and joint tickets to a third country (region) who are in transit from China can apply for visa-free transit procedures at the ports and then stay visa-free for up to 144 hours within the stipulated area, and can engage in short-term activities such as travelling, doing business, visiting, and so on.

According to the statistics from the platform of Qunar, in the first half of this year, the number of passengers using non-Chinese passports to book air tickets for domestic flights increased by 1.8 times compared with the same period in 2023. A spokesman for the National Immigration Administration said that the number of foreigners coming to China is expected to continue to rise in the second half of the year.

Foreign bloggers promote the "real China" on their initiative.

"One of the most successful changes of the visa-free policy, I think, is that it has attracted video bloggers from all over the world." Gao Yousi, an Israeli-born "foreign netizen" who has been active in China for a long time, told mainland media.

According to a research team from the School of Journalism at the Renmin University of China, the highlights of the "Foreigners traveling in China" videos are mainly based on the bloggers speaking Chinese, tasting food, and the symbols that the bloggers find different from the Western stereotypes, such as mobile phone payment, city construction and Chinese brands.

Recently, China Newsweek tracked 21 YouTube bloggers with more than 10,000 followers, and as of July 4, they had posted a total of 168 long videos featuring China Travel in the past four months. 10 of them have more than 100,000 followers, and 7 of them have posted more than 10 videos. At least 35 videos have more than 1,000 comments.

These bloggers often directly emphasize the difference between actual travel observations and Western stereotypes in their titles, quotes and video openings, such as "We arrived in China in shock, everything was a lie" and "Western media lied about China's security? ...

Americans on their first visit to China marvel at good security.

A video by American blogger Sammy and Tommy with the headline "Americans in China for the first time, totally unexpected" has received 967,000 views and nearly 6,000 comments. Two Mad Explorers, a travelling couple from Ireland, were impressed by China's good social order after recovering their mobile phone in Chongqing.

"The Western media often presents China as a very unsafe country for foreigners, but after leaving my mobile phone in a hairdresser's shop in Chongqing, I went back to look for it half an hour later to find it in the same place."

"My passport has an entry/exit record for Turkey, so I thought I wouldn't be able to enter China, but it doesn't look like that now."

This is the first "mystery" about China that the JetLag Warriors, a Canadian travelling couple with more than 350,000 followers on YouTube, have solved since they first landed in Shanghai.

"I'd recommend a trip to China to anyone!"

"I would recommend travelling to China to anyone." In Yangshuo, Guangxi, Ta Kung Po's reporter met Priyank, who was born in India, raised and settled in the UK, and travelling to China with her family of six.

She said she was fascinated to learn on social media that the film Avatar was set in Zhangjiajie, China, but that there were also many unfavourable comments on foreign social media about unfriendly Chinese people, language barriers and communication difficulties in China.

"I think the best way to break the stereotypes is to get closer. When I came to China, my experience was completely different from what I had heard before. The people here are warm and friendly, and there is a long history of culture and beautiful nature. If I have the opportunity to come back, I will explore more different places."

"Living in London, I thought it was already a big city, but when I landed in Guangzhou, the size of the city was beyond my imagination". Oli, a student at the University of London, said, "Some of my classmates are from China, so it's not like I don't know anything about China, but when I actually came to China and experienced the 'Chinese features' such as the high-speed train and e-payment, I realised that the China that I had seen on YouTube before was only a very small part of China".

Chinese Modernisation is surprise after surprise.

An American girl named Lisa wrote on her social media account, "My previous impression of China was of an ancient culture and traditional style, but when I came here, I was shocked by how modernised China is. The Bund in Shanghai, the China World Trade Centre in Beijing, all these modern buildings made me feel the development and vitality of China."

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