CHEN YILIN Shanghai “China is back on the world travel map. 2024 has seen a remarkable resurgence in international tourism to China. More than 29 million foreigners visited the country in the first 11 months this year. That’s an over 86 percent increase compared to last year. Social media is exploding with #ChinaTravel, generating over a billion views – a number that’s almost competing with the viewership of China’s iconic Spring Festival Gala!”

CHEN YILIN Shanghai “Fueling this boom is a significant relaxation of China’s visa policies.”

The popular 72/144-hour visa-free transit policy allows travelers from 54 countries to stay in China for up to six days while transiting to a third destination.

“But that’s not all! Starting this December, the policy has been extended to 240 hours – that’s 10 days.”

And for citizens of 38 countries, visa-free stays for tourism, business, or family visits have also been doubled to 30 days.

These relaxed rules have attracted not only millions of first-time travelers, but those who are returning for longer stays.

Taz and Libby from the UK visited China four times through the year, and produced over 85 videos about China on their YouTube channel.

TAZ UK Traveller “We’ve done over 25, about 26-27 cities. There’s gonna be too many times after this, for sure. Too much to see in China.”

LIBBY UK Traveller “It’s opened our minds to so many different things. We’ve tried so much food, we’ve just met the most friendly people.”

While I was delving deeper into the #ChinaTravel videos, I was intrigued by how often travelers described China as being different from their initial perceptions. So I talked to a few of them about their experiences in China.

CHEN YILIN Shanghai “Hi Ben, I noticed some of your most viewed videos feature robot food delivery and the cashless payment system. Has your travel in China altered your perception of the country in any way?”

BEN UK Traveller “It’s just perfect. Like everything from the infrastructure, modern transport, convenience. It really changed the way we view everything. It’s just amazing.”

CYNTHIA CORONA Mexican Content Creator “If you come to China and you see it with your own eyes, it’s different. Because you hear in the media many things, and I just didn’t want to follow my direction and my expectations based on these. Living there and travelling there I always felt welcomed. I think it’s part of my passion or my way to express in the daily life or things that you see in China that you don’t see somewhere else.”

For many vloggers, it’s about sharing their authentic travel experiences and promoting understanding between cultures.

TAZ UK Traveller “If you go back to our videos when we started vlogging in China, the tone of the comments from even the Western viewers has changed so much, because it was very apprehensive at the start when people are like, is it safe? But from then till now, people are commenting saying , ‘we can’t wait to go and see China for ourselves. You guys have really like shown us what China is really like as opposed to what they hear in the media.’ And they are more understanding of like how things are on the ground level through our eyes.”

Meanwhile, China has been upgrading services to enhance the travel experience for foreign guests, including improved e-payment services, expedited car rentals, and the widespread use of multi-language signage.

MIAO LU Co-founder and Secretary General Center for China and Globalization “China is opening the door wider and wider. So many visa-free policies, especially unilaterally extending visa facilities to so many countries. I think this is a great gesture and a great action to attract more foreigners to understand China.”

The message is clear – China is increasingly opening up to the world, offering abundant opportunities for business, study and cultural exchanges. CYL, CGTN, SH.

From CGTN， 2024-12-25