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Transit Trippers

China’s multiple visa-free policies are helping to boost inbound tourism,with vloggers and influencers taking advantage of the new travel trend

By Yi Ziyi , Wang Shihan Updated Oct.1

Tourists from the international cruise ship the MS Zuiderdam attend a Peking Opera performance, Dalian Urban Music Center, Dalian, Liaoning Province, March 10, 2024 (Photo by VCG)

A group of foreign tourists take a bike tour to explore the streets of Beijing (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

Patricia Muller asked the tattoo artist to ink two Chinese characters, mulan (沐兰), on her left wrist. 

Initially, the German tourist entered the Beijing tattoo parlor on March 3 intending to get it done on her heel. But her Chinese friend Jieyi and the tattoo artist advised against it. 

“You can’t have your name on your foot. You shouldn’t tread on yourself. That’s unlucky,” Jieyi told her friend. 

Jieyi and Muller had met a decade earlier during their graduate program in Munich. Now back in her native China, Jieyi was showing her old friend around, sharing the country’s rich culture and unique customs. 

Throughout their trip, Muller found the Chinese tendency to attach meanings to everything both surprising and interesting. Her tattoo reads not only as a homonym for Muller, but also for China’s legendary woman warrior, Mulan. The individual characters hold even more personal significance: The 31-year-old chose the character mu (“to bathe”) because she loves sunbathing, and lan for her favorite flower, the gladiolus. 

The tattoo was not as painful as expected, Muller said. In just 15 minutes, two dark blue characters were beautifully tattooed in traditional script on her left wrist. 

“It was very fast, and she did it so precisely. When I come back to China, I’ll find her again for another tattoo,” Muller told NewsChina. 

Muller, who spent 15 days traveling in China in late February, was among the earliest foreign tourists to benefit from China’s visa-free policy. 

With inbound tourism reeling from the three-year Covid-19 pandemic, China made a significant change to its entry requirements in late November 2023, introducing a 15-day unilateral visa-free policy for six countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. 

By August 2024, the policy had expanded to 15 countries. China also signed reciprocal visa exemption agreements with seven countries, including Singapore and Thailand, allowing stays of 30 days. 

In November 2023, China had already expanded the 72/144-hour visa-free transit policy to nationals from 54 countries, allowing them to stay in certain Chinese cities up to six days without a visa, provided they have valid travel documents and a confirmed flight ticket to a third country or region. 

These measures have paid off. According to the National Immigration Administration, in the first half of 2024, China recorded 14.63 million inbound trips by foreign visitors, a 152.7 percent increase compared to the previous year. Of these, 8.54 million foreigners entered China visa-free, a year-on-year increase of 190.1 percent.

Symbols and Metaphors 
Muller never imagined it would be so easy to visit China. 

“I didn’t need to do anything except go through passport control. I didn’t need to apply for anything, which was great. They only asked how long I would stay in China and reminded me not to overstay,” Muller told NewsChina. 

She arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on February 24. There she had a long layover for a connecting flight to Southwest China’s Chongqing to meet her traveling companion, Jieyi. 

Communication was her biggest challenge at the Shanghai airport. “Not many people I met could speak English. I was trying to show them my ticket on my phone,” she said. 

The rest of her journey went smoothly, with Jieyi helping her book tickets, reserve hotels and manage mobile payments. 

Muller made the most of her visa-free period, traveling across the country and back in 15 days: She went from Chongqing to explore Yunnan Province, then on to Beijing and Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province before returning to Shanghai. 

In Chongqing, she marveled at the famous Liziba Station, where a light rail train runs through a residential building. She was also impressed by the skyline from the rooftop of the Marriott Hotel. 

In Beijing, she and her friend watched the solemn flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square early one cold morning in March. “I thought I might have been the only foreigner there,” she joked. 

One of the most surprising aspects of her trip was the diversity of Chinese food, especially as a vegetarian. “I didn’t think there would be so many different dishes to choose from. I wanted to try all of them,” she said. 

Her favorite was kaoshaopi. A popular street snack in Chongqing, kaoshaopi involves a sweet potato flour wrap stuffed with cilantro, green onions, pickled cowpea and fish mint. She also enjoyed flower cakes, a traditional dessert from Yunnan made with edible rose petals. 

Muller was impressed by China’s technology, particularly the speed and punctuality of the high-speed railway, the efficiency of express delivery and the use of delivery robots for hotel room service. “You ordered anything, and it was so convenient and fast. I was surprised. I even took a selfie with a delivery robot,” she said. 

In Yangzhou’s He Garden, built in 1883, Muller marveled at its unique rockery. The arranged stones are based on a design originally created by the artist Shi Tao (1642-1707), a Buddhist monk who later turned to Taoism and settled in Yangzhou. When sunlight shines through a round hole in the stones, it projects a moon-like shape on the pond’s surface. The spectacle symbolizes life’s rise and fall through the moon’s phases. 

“Meanings, metaphors, puns and symbols. There are always stories behind everything. That is very different from Europeans,” Muller told NewsChina.

Patricia Muller (right) and her friend Jieyi pose dressed in traditional hanfu costumes, Yangzhou Daming Monastery, Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, March 7, 2024 (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

A foreign tourist tries out a folk drum, Nanxun District, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, August 6, 2023 (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

Overseas guests dine at the hotpot restaurant run by Liu Lei, Shichahai, Beijing (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

Gate Crashers 
In June, 27-year-old Goh Jun-ho from South Korea made his first 144- hour visa-free trip in China. Busy with work, Goh had no time to apply for a tourist visa, so during his journey from Edinburgh to Seoul, he decided to take a six-day transit trip to Shanghai and Hangzhou. 

“Six days were enough to explore two cities, but the time went too fast. I really enjoyed the trip and didn’t want to leave,” Goh told NewsChina. To prepare, he downloaded several commonly used Chinese apps and made an itinerary in advance. 

“The 144-hour visa-free policy is great for first-time visitors to get a quick impression of the country. But for a more in-depth experience, it’s better to apply for a tourist visa,” Goh said. “China is too big to see in just one visit. Next time, I hope to explore more,” he added. 

Raz Gal-Or, a Beijing-based Israeli entrepreneur and online influencer, cofounded YChina, a short-video program about foreigners living and studying in China. YChina has over 4.46 million followers on Bilibili, a leading Chinese video-sharing platform. 

Since January, Gal-Or has hosted a new video segment called “Catching Random Foreigners at the Airport,” in which he offers free tour guide services to first-time visitors. 

Wearing a white T-shirt printed with “Free tour guide, I pay everything,” Gal-Or and his team wait at airports in different cities, asking foreign visitors who have just arrived if they would like a free tour guide service. He customizes a day tour based on their needs and covers all expenses. 

Gal-Or has provided free tour guide services to visitors from over 10 countries, meeting them at airports in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi’an and Zhengzhou. He has made 18 videos about their day trips in China. 

“We wanted to find the earliest foreign travelers and record their fresh experiences of excitement and culture shock,” he told NewsChina. 

In April, Sylvie, a young woman from France who has traveled extensively, landed in Beijing to start a seven-day trip. She returned to the airport the next morning because she needed to buy a SIM card, which she could only get at the airport. When Gal-Or met Sylvie, she was using a translation app to communicate with a sales clerk. He helped her speak with the clerk in Chinese. 

“That was the nearest store to the airport exit that provides services for foreign visitors,” Gao-Or said. “I don’t know why people who work there can’t speak English.” 

However, he said that such shocks are part of the experience. “The meaning of travel often lies in the discomforts you may encounter. Many foreigners don’t travel just for comfort and convenience,” he said. Gal-Or prescribes about a week to acclimate to life in China. The quicker visitors adapt, the more time and energy they have to explore. 

“A crucial problem to solve is how to help foreign visitors without a local friend quickly learn to use mobile payment, local apps and online maps,” GalOr said.

Trending Travel 
China’s friendly visa-free policies have attracted more overseas influencers and vloggers. They make videos about their observations, often challenging Western stereotypes of modern Chinese society. These videos highlight mobile payments, urban construction and high-speed railways. 

On TikTok, videos related to overseas tourists’ trips in China with the hashtag “China Travel” have garnered over one billion views. Our reporter reviewed videos from 21 overseas YouTubers with more than 10,000 followers who traveled to China this year. In the first half of 2024, they posted 168 videos about China travel. 

Among the most prolific accounts are “Sun Kissed Bucket List,” run by British couple Taz and Libby, with 28 videos in April, and “Two Mad Explorers” by an Irish couple with 22 videos the same month. 

Luke Cleary, co-creator of “Two Mad Explorers,” pointed out how his experience contrasts sharply with some Western media outlets portrayals of China as unsafe for foreigners. In Chongqing, he forgot his mobile phone at a barber shop. When he returned half an hour later, it was still there. In his hometown, it would have been gone in minutes, he claimed. 

The growing number of China travel vlogs on social media have also influenced travel preferences. Liu Lichao, a Shanghai-based guide who organizes city bike tours, noticed changes this year: Many foreign travelers now prefer visiting non-tourist attractions like city parks or experiencing local life through haircuts, ear cleaning and Chinese massage. 

Liu cited the famous Shanghai Marriage Market at People’s Park as a common request. On weekends, parents and grandparents gather there to exchange pamphlets with information about their unmarried children and grandchildren, hoping to find them partners. 

Chongqing-based tour guide Zhang Qiang observed similar trends. “Foreign travelers this year ask to take the light rail at Liziba Station, a site popular online. They want to experience the train passing through the building. Some even try rabbit head, a local street food. They usually avoid animal organs or heads but seem curious after watching TikTok videos,” Zhang told NewsChina. 

Gal-Or believes that attracting influencers and vloggers from different countries to travel in China is one of the most successful outcomes of the visa-free policies. 

“Their videos have sparked interest in China and opened a window for the world to learn more about the country,” he said.

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