China relaxes visa rules to show off rich history and cyberpunk cool

Washington Post

3 days ago

BEIJING — From the ancient alleyways around Beijing's Forbidden City and the glitzy shopping streets of Shanghai to the futuristic cyberpunk vibes of Chongqing, China is enjoying an influx of tourists — many of whom are keen to vlog enthusiastically about a country that was not what they expected.
Canadians Steve and Ivana enthusiastically told their viewers that walking down a Chinese city street is 'so impressive and different that it's hard to know where to start.'
Americans Mike and Ashley wished they had known just how developed Chinese cities were before arriving and lamented that 'the media misrepresents China in a negative light.'
And Craig and Chantal from South Africa described being wowed by China's 'sleek, efficient, clean, on time' trains.
The sharp increase in tourist numbers (and gushing about China) is in no small part because Beijing has dramatically loosened its entry requirements over the past 20 months.
China previously instituted strict visa controls, usually requiring applicants to apply in person. Now, citizens of 47 countries — including Australia, Germany and Japan — can enter China visa-free for 30 days, while those from 55 countries — including the United States and Indonesia — can apply for a 10-day transit visa on arrival.
This push is partly designed to boost tourist numbers, which fell precipitously after the pandemic, and partly an effort to show visitors a more fun, more advanced view of China during a time of heightened geopolitical tensions.
Chinese authorities are betting that travelers will be taken with the country's rich history and rapid technological advancements — and forget the complaints of their governments over China's human rights record and diplomatic aggression.
The rave reviews on TikTok and YouTube — some of the vloggers appear to have had their trips subsidized by Chinese tourism promoters, but many appear to be filled with genuine awe — suggest that Beijing's efforts to improve its image through tourism are beginning to pay off.
Last year, tourists made 130 million trips to China and spent $94.2 billion, coming close to 2019 levels, according to official data. The government does not release more regular nationwide data breaking down visitor arrivals from various countries, but city-level statistics suggest demand has continued to grow this year.
International tourist arrivals into Shanghai were up nearly 40 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2025, reaching 4 million trips, with the largest numbers of travelers coming from South Korea, Thailand and Japan.
'It's been a success,' said Lars Ulrik Thom, the founder of Beijing Postcards, which offers walking tours of the capital city's ancient 'hutong' alleyways and major sites such as the Temple of Heaven and Forbidden City.
More than 840,000 foreigners applied for a visa-free entry or transit in Beijing in the first half of this year, double the number recorded in the same period in 2024, the official China Tourism News reported.
Compared with before the pandemic, said Thom, there are now more tourists who appear to have come to China somewhat impulsively or who are stopping by on the way to another destination, and many appear to show up with few plans or preconceptions.
'I would have never thought in my lifetime that they would do this, so it's a pretty big thing,' Thom, who has been leading tours in Beijing for 20 years, said of the visa relaxation. 'It's interesting that it coincides with the U.S. getting so much bad press in the world, whereas a couple of years ago, that was China.'
The government's new visa policies are part of an effort to boost China's economy, which was already struggling because of low domestic demand even before President Donald Trump started the latest trade war.
But the policies are also aimed at rehabilitating China's image, said Liu Xiangyan, an analyst at the China Tourism Academy, a state-affiliated research institute.
'For three years, China suddenly disappeared from the list of global travel destinations considered by Westerners,' she said.
Liu believes China is starting to shake off its lowbrow travel reputation. Travelers now come to ride the bullet train or check out drones and electric cars. 'They feel that coming to China is akin to how Chinese people used to view traveling to Europe and the U.S.,' she said.
Still, appealing to American tourists is tricky given the sharp deterioration in political relations and the bipartisan antipathy toward the Chinese Communist Party. At the end of last year, the State Department upgraded its travel warning for Americans visiting China, telling them to 'exercise increased caution' due to 'arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans.'
American interest in traveling to China was also sapped during the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
China's reputation among Americans still suffers from geopolitical tensions and pandemic-era visa cancellations, said Sheng Ding, a political scientist at the Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania. 'Public confidence was hurt,' Sheng said.
A drop in the number of flights from the United States and the lack of the same 30-day visa-free policy offered to many European citizens is also curtailing American arrivals, said Jenny Zhao, managing director of leisure travel at WildChina.
But WildChina is seeing more requests from clients between 30 and 50 years old interested in technology. They ask to visit electric vehicle factories, visit the setting of the hit 'Black Myth: Wukong' video game and watch dancing robots. 'They want to see something new, edgy and different — to witness China's modern side,' Zhao said.
China has been trying to become culturally and technologically alluring for years — with limited success. In the lead-up to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, the Chinese Communist Party identified 'soft power' — using its cultural appeal — as a national priority and a way to extend its influence without resorting to hard tools of economic and military coercion.
Then and now, Beijing considered the concept a powerful tool to counter growing fears of its rising global clout, and it has made extensive efforts to become more appealing outside the country.
But many state-directed efforts, such as huge investments in international programming from Chinese state media and founding dozens of Confucius Institutes to teach Chinese language, have come under increasing scrutiny as a tool of political influence.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping's call in 2021 for China to present its 'lovable' side to the world was undercut by Chinese 'wolf warrior' diplomats who verbally — and sometimes physically — attacked critics of Beijing.
But Trump's return — and his belligerent approach to friends and foes alike — has given China another chance to win friends and influence other nations.
The appeal to tourists has come as Chinese brands such as Labubu, a designer plush toy made by retailer Pop Mart, and electric-car maker BYD are gaining international recognition.
Some global surveys have found that China's image has overtaken that of the U.S. The Democracy Perception Index, an annual report from a German research firm released in May, found that respondents in 76 out of the 96 countries surveyed feel more positively about China than the U.S.
That shift, while mostly thanks to declining perceptions of the U.S., has been helped by a change in China's reputation among travelers. And Chinese tour operators are capitalizing on their country's newfound image.
Take Chongqing, a city of 21 million in China's mountainous southwest with a maze of walkways in the sky, subway trains that disappear into buildings and refurbished World War II bomb shelters that now house hotpot restaurants.
When Darren Jason Watkins Jr., an American YouTuber better known as IShowSpeed, went to Chongqing in May, his live stream from the city got 9.4 million views.
Chen Ming, who left his job as an app designer to start a tour agency in his hometown, believes Chongqing is made for the TikTok age: Its algorithms love the city's cyberpunk vibes.
Exposure like this is helping bring a new view of China to younger audiences abroad, he said.
'Many of [these people] are still young, possibly still in college, but as they grow older, in their twenties and thirties, and establish themselves in society, their impression of China will definitely be different from before,' Chen said.
Li reported from Seoul.