中文
Editor's note: The year 2025 marks the final year China implements its 14th Five-Year Plan. Over the past five years, from technological innovation to green development, from rural revitalization to a tightly knit high-speed rail network, the Chinese people have experienced remarkable transformation in their daily lives. To reflect on and celebrate the shared progress among the Chinese nation, CGTN presents "Our Nation, Our Home: A Five-Year Journey" series.
By Lyu Yue and Zhang Yihua
In 2024, China's visa-free transit policy sparked a viral trend known as "China Travel" across global social media, featuring a surge in foreign visitors who flocked to China and shared their firsthand travel experiences, flooding platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok with vivid glimpses of the country's modern vibrancy. On YouTube alone, individual videos tagged "China Travel" have garnered over 80 million views.
Take British travel vloggers, Reanne and Ben, as an example. They have posted over 40 travel videos recording their journeys across China, the titles of which – often feature keywords like "shocking," "unbelievable" and "the truth about China" – capture a genuine sense of awe from foreign travelers encountering China's remarkable blend of modernity and tradition.
From the sleek efficiency of its high-speed rail network and the ubiquity of digital payment systems to the country's rich cultural heritage and diverse cuisine, these travel vlogs are doing more than jacking up inbound tourism for China; they have become vivid carriers of the country's high-level opening up and growing cultural soft power on the world stage.
The "China Travel" boom is a remarkable outcome of China's transition from factor-driven opening up to institutional opening-up. Behind the surge lies a series of innovations in immigration management, service delivery and consumer experience. Over the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), China has striven to build a multilayered, streamlined system for travel and customs services, rolling out targeted policies that have significantly improved the convenience of visiting China in the following aspects.
First, on immigration management, China has steadily expanded its visa-free "circle of friends" and optimized entry policies. As of June 2025, China has granted unilateral visa-free access to 47 countries, signed mutual visa-exemption agreements with 29 nations and expanded the number of eligible countries for the 240-hour visa-free transit policy to 55.
These measures have strongly boosted inbound tourism. According to the National Immigration Administration, in the first half of 2025, 13.64 million foreign visitors entered China visa-free, up 53.9 percent year-on-year, accounting for 71.2 percent of all foreign arrivals.
Second, in service provision, refined services, such as upgrades to the refund-upon-departure model, are fueling new momentum for cross-border consumption. In April, the State Taxation Administration (STA) rolled out a new refund-upon-purchase policy, allowing foreign tourists to receive instant tax rebates at the point of purchase in China.
By the end of August, the number of tax refund stores catering to foreign visitors in China had exceeded 10,000, with the number of tourists claiming tax refunds jumping 247.8 percent year-on-year, while sales of tax-refundable goods and total refund surged 97.5 percent and 96.9 percent, respectively. These figures speak for just how much these measures are fueling tourism-driven consumption.
Third, in the consumer experience, long-standing barriers to mobile payments are being dismantled. In March 2024, China's State Council issued guidelines to enhance payment accessibility, raising the cap on a single transaction for foreign users to $5,000.
According to the Shenzhen Branch of People's Bank of China, in China's southern financial hub Shenzhen alone, the first half of 2025 saw 85.88 million non-cash payment transactions by foreign nationals, with the value hitting 11.81 billion yuan, or about 1.65 billion U.S. dollars, marking year-on-year increases of 29 percent and 35 percent, mostly in supermarket shopping and catering. These are clear signs of the continued unleashing of spending potential.
Meanwhile, cities across China focus on crafting immersive cultural tourism experiences. "The Longest Day in Chang'an" theme block in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province and the traditional Chinese medicine wellness tour and moon-viewing activities launched in east China's Hangzhou are helping turn cultural immersive experience into a core competitive strength, further shaping a friendly and open environment for international tourists.
With the advent of the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), the "China Travel" trend is poised to become a key driver of China's new round of high-level opening up. For one, China's inbound tourism market still holds vast untapped potential: Although the travel boom is already gaining momentum, inbound tourism revenue before the COVID-19 pandemic accounted for only 0.5 percent of China's GDP, far below the global average of 1.5 percent.
With a clear rebound in inbound tourism thanks to the implementation of a series of supportive policies, closing this gap could generate nearly $100 billion in additional economic output, boosting sectors like aviation, hospitality and cultural tourism and providing fresh impetus for China's high-quality growth.
For another, as institutional opening-up deepens, inbound tourism will deliver strategic value beyond the industry's economic benefits. China will continue to refine facilitation measures while advancing alignment in regulation synergy, cultural exchange and industrial collaboration, turning inbound tourism into a bridge of fostering people-to-people ties and deepening international cooperation.
From viral travel vlogs to millions of foreign tourists seeing and experiencing China themselves, behind every piece of the "China Travel" story lies a deeper narrative – one of a more open, confident and connected China, injecting more vitality into the global governance system.
Lyu Yue, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies under the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), and executive director of the Academy of Global Innovation & Governance, UIBE. Zhang Yihua is a PhD candidate at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies under the UIBE.
