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Opinion | China welcomes foreigners. It just needs policies to make that clear
- China is expanding visa-free travel but more can be done to make public transport, lodging and tourist attractions more accessible to foreigners
- An English QR guide at ports of entry or one-stop payment cards can go a long way towards boosting inbound travel
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China’s recent announcement that it would extend the short-stay visa-exemption policy for citizens of 12 countries – 11 in Europe – until December 2025 is a welcome sign to the world that Beijing is interested in furthering intercultural understanding with more countries.
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This comes as international arrivals continue to lag, with European tourists reportedly entering China at 30 per cent of 2019 levels. Now, the country even allows visa-free entry for foreign tourist groups via cruise ships. But will these new policies work?
On my recent trip to China under this visa-exemption policy, I found that it was, surprisingly, more challenging than in 2019 for foreigners to travel around the country independently, even for someone like me who speaks Chinese.
Access to some public places in China can be difficult without prior registration, or showing some kind of identification such as a passport or Chinese identity card. Tourist sites in Beijing, such as Tiananmen Square, require individual travellers to register a day before to enter.
Connecting to Wi-fi without a local phone number can prove difficult, too, while ordering and paying for meals at restaurants often requires a mobile payment account.
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Tourism trouble: post-pandemic hurdles of China travel
Tourism trouble: post-pandemic hurdles of China travel
It was difficult for foreigner travellers to spend more than 60,000 yuan (US$8,280) annually in mainland China – the world’s largest society to go increasingly cashless – using mobile payment services until the recent increase of the annual cumulative transaction limit to US$50,000.
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