With China's continuous opening up, an increasing number of international tourists are choosing to travel to China, leading to a flourishing tourism industry. Since the pandemic has eased, inbound tourism has seen significant growth, especially since March of this year, growth has been explosive. This surge in tourism is due to the promotion of several macro policies such as the gradual restoration of the 72/144-hour transit visa exemption policy, simplified visa procedures, and short-term visa-free entry policies for certain countries.

For instance, Sichuan's tourism industry has also welcomed a unique professional—Pablo, an experienced Spanish-speaking tour guide. Having returned to the guiding profession since early last year, Pablo has witnessed the slow revival of inbound tourism and has been busy with the explosive growth in recent months. He almost needs to lead tours for 25 days each month, and he works long hours every day, walking thousands of steps. Despite the busyness, the shortage of Spanish-speaking guides has made Pablo feel the market’s demand, and he has begun to collaborate with travel agencies to train new Spanish-speaking guide candidates.

For many Western tourists, Chengdu is a city full of surprises, and although some have a stereotypical image of it as a "small county town with only pandas," when they actually come here, they are attracted by the city's vitality and rich culture. According to Pablo's observation, Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Guilin, and Hong Kong make up the traditional travel route for many tourists visiting China for the first time, while Chengdu is becoming a popular tourist destination due to the convenience of the Xicheng high-speed railway. Many tourists, after visiting Xi'an and the Terracotta Army, choose to take the high-speed train to Chengdu, showing great interest and surprise at this city that exceeds their expectations.

Although the destination offers visa exemptions and transit visas, most tourists choose to apply for a tourist visa that allows for a 30-day stay before going to China to ensure sufficient time in the country. Many visiting tourists say that because visitors from Spain and Central and South America need to endure long flights to reach China, they prefer a longer duration of stay to fully experience the local culture.

Among visa-processing travelers, small groups of 2 to 5 people account for the majority, as much as 90%. The itineraries of these small groups typically include charter cars and full-time guides, which are relatively expensive. The tourists who choose this type of itinerary are mostly elderly people with better economic conditions and more time. Unlike the rush and hectic travel style, they prefer a slower-paced journey to experience Chinese culture more deeply.

At the end of February this year, a Spanish elderly couple disregarded the exhaustion of long-distance travel and applied for a visa to travel to China. Highlights of their itinerary included several cities with relatively few foreign tourists, such as Harbin, Lijiang, Dali, and Shangri-La. Unfortunately, the gentleman had a fall on the first day of the trip and injured his foot, but he courageously completed the rest of the journey in a wheelchair.

When they arrived in Sichuan, the elderly couple eagerly looked forward to walking hand in hand through the romantic Shunan Bamboo Sea and boating on the lake. In order not to disappoint them, three staff members helped the gentleman get on a bamboo raft while in his wheelchair. In one photo, we can see the gentleman seated in the wheelchair, with a fractured foot immobilized, his neck hung with a camera, and despite wearing an orange life jacket, still smiling.

At the end of April, another elderly tourist from Mexico came to China alone. He is a Qigong enthusiast and attends a Qigong training camp in Hainan every year. After the training, he continues to visit different cities on his own. This time, he expressed his dining requirements in detail—he desires to enjoy high-end cuisine, with each meal costing no less than 500 yuan. He likes Cantonese and Fujian cuisines but dislikes spicy flavors; therefore, he does not plan to try Sichuan cuisine.

Despite Pablo's attempts to explain to this tourist that Sichuan's culinary delights are not only found in high-end restaurants, but also in many street stalls worth tasting, the tourist insisted on his choice. Eventually, after a luxurious seafood buffet, he trusted Pablo's choice of food and, the following day, took Pablo's advice to try Sichuan cuisine. To Pablo's surprise, the old man, once insistent on not eating Sichuan cuisine, feasted in the Sichuan restaurant, ordering enough dishes including roast duck, Kung Pao chicken, steamed fish with green Sichuan peppercorns, and deep-fried glutinous rice cake, and eventually fell deeply in love with steamed fish with green Sichuan peppercorns.

Pablo is proud of his ability to cater to the different dietary habits of tourists from all over the world, saying that organizing group meals is always a challenging experience.

Sichuan, this unique culinary paradise, always includes a special experience on its tourist list—tasting authentic hot pot. However, as many foreign tourists are reserved towards traditional hot pots that contain organ meats such as tripe and intestines, Pablo has to make great efforts to plan suitable dining options. If the travelers can happily accept the double challenge of spicy and organ meat flavors, the local hot pot of Chengdu is the obvious choice; if they can only accept spicy but find organ meats difficult to swallow, then the modified Sichuan red hot pot with Chaoshan-style beef is their perfect sanctuary; as for those who can accept neither spicy nor organ meats, the healthy soup hot pot can fulfill their palate. Yet, for those who do not eat spicy food but like organ meats, Pablo still has no suitable alternative option. On the Sichuan food list, there is an absolute taboo—spicy rabbit head. Pablo's experience shows that this dish often results in a cultural shock for foreign tourists in the streets of Chengdu; they either take out their cameras to record this exotic sight in shock or turn around and hastily depart in distress.

In stark contrast to the easygoing tourists that get along with Pablo is the 63-year-old lady from Switzerland, Elisabeth Villiger-Toufex, who can be called a "special force" in the field of tourism. In just 8 days, she has already visited Beijing, Shanghai, and Suzhou intensively. This is Elisabeth's second time setting foot in China. As a former professional tour guide, she has traveled to over a hundred countries. Looking back on more than thirty years ago when she led a group of Western tourists through the classic route of Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Guilin, and Hong Kong, China did not have the skyscrapers it does today, and even in the metropolitan streets, one could not avoid seeing trash. The Chinese people back then were full of curiosity for these foreign visitors, but few approached to communicate, merely whispering from a distance and sizing up these foreign faces. This time, Elisabeth returned to China to reunite with her family. Currently living in Cyprus, her son moved to Nankai University in Tianjin last August to participate in a one-year Chinese language course, while her daughter is studying in Switzerland; thus, they have been apart for more than half a year. Elisabeth found it both amusing and exasperating that shortly after she obtained her tourist visa, China began to implement a 15-day visa exemption policy for Swiss tourists. Before departure, following her son's advice, Elisabeth downloaded and installed AliPay and DiDi apps. She was very quick to get the hang of these "new technologies," describing the whole process as "very smooth."

This smooth experience is due to the optimizations China has made to mobile payment methods over the past year. Formerly, using mobile payment tools like Alipay required binding with a domestic bank card for real-name authentication, which posed a significant barrier for many foreign travelers. To improve this situation, in July last year, Alipay and WeChat Pay started accepting foreign bank cards such as Visa and Mastercard as part of a pilot demonstration at the Asian Games in Hangzhou. On March 15 of this year, the People's Bank of China released the "Payment Guide for Foreigners in China", detailing the use of 5 types of payment services. On 18th March, Alipay launched a "multilingual translation service", expanding the original Chinese and English language options to 16 languages, making it easier for functions such as hailing a cab, booking a hotel, and buying tickets within the App, with convenient translation services. For Elisabeth, with German as her mother tongue, this certainly made her consumption process much more convenient and efficient.

On her first day of traveling in Beijing, Elisabeth met up with her day-tour guide at the Temple of Heaven landmark, and thus her "power walking mode" journey began.

During her visit to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, Elisabeth felt a perfect fusion of history and the contemporary. The Temple of Heaven had barely changed in the more than thirty years since her last visit, however, she noticed that the environment had become "especially clean and orderly", and the Chinese people seemed more "open and hospitable". Several groups of Chinese tourists even took the initiative to talk to her and ask for a photo together, giving her a celebrity-like feeling of being in the spotlight.

The Chinese guide leading her, Mr. Li, although he has never traveled abroad, speaks fluent English. He lives in Langfang, Hebei, and commutes nearly three hours every day to Beijing to receive tourists, but such long-distance trudging hasn't weakened his enthusiasm for his job. Even during breaks, he is happy to practice Chinese with Elisabeth's son, inquiring whether he is interested in working in China or finding a Chinese partner.

Nanluoguxiang was Elisabeth's next stop in Beijing. From being a residential area during her last visit to now a hub of business and culture, she was intrigued by the changes. She captured her own image in front of an antique charm-filled wishing well and specifically photographed a string of wishing cards, one of which contained a wish eagerly desired by many Chinese: "To get rich instantly and win a 100 million lottery prize".

While walking through the hutongs, Elisabeth was attracted by a strong scent, which turned out to be a large pot outdoors boiling tofu and pork intestines, a small stewed wheaten food stall. Even as an offal enthusiast, faced with such a blatant scene, she still felt somewhat uncomfortable. She explained that while offal is also consumed in Europe, it is usually not eaten as "comprehensively" as in China, and during cooking, offal is often cleverly made into visually appealing dishes, not presented so directly to patrons as here.

After saying farewell to Beijing, Elisabeth took the Fuxinghao high-speed train to Shanghai. She went straight to the Asia-Pacific Sun Yang Fashion and Gift Market located at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum Station on Metro Line 2, a shopping paradise often frequented by foreign tourists. Here, whether it's "the latest technology" or "big-brand leather bags", "antique relics" or "luxury watches", there is a wide range available. She bought a pair of wireless earbuds for 140 yuan, plus a free MegaSafe wireless charging case, many times cheaper than the same model she once bought in an Apple store for 280 US dollars. In Elisabeth's eyes, there was no difference in appearance, sound, and quality between the two pairs of earbuds, "after all, they are both made in China". She purchased four counterfeit "Chanel" handbags for less than 3000 yuan, whereas an original overseas costs over ten times per bag.

To profoundly experience a culture, the most direct way is to immerse oneself in its daily life. Julien Tincho from France puts this anthropological theory into practice. For him, eager for an in-depth exploration of China, a 15-day visa-free policy and a 30-day travel visa are clearly not enough. In February this year, Julien, as an MBA student, decided to participate in an exchange program at Renmin University of China.

Over the past three months, he seized every opportunity to explore the surroundings using weekends and holidays. Being new in town, he liked to take a stroll on the streets after meals. One evening, his walk led to an unexpected encounter with a group of uncles and aunts dancing to music in the streets. Despite being at an ordinary street corner in Beijing, with a few bicycles parked and a steady stream of pedestrians, the locals danced enthusiastically to the rousing melodies, indifferent to the curious stares of passersby.

The sight of people dancing carefree, without the aid of alcohol, surprised Julien—in his hometown, it's rare to see people dance so freely. He was quickly infected by their enthusiasm and joined in. He recorded this experience and posted it on the international version of TikTok, where it gained 1.29 million views and 180,0 likes. Users expressed their envy, with one foreign commenter writing: "Buddy, I want to be like this in my forties."

In early April, Julien's footsteps reached Mount Huang. Outside a park, he happened upon a group of elderly men playing poker. When he exchanged glances with one of the men waiting for a seat at the table, the man invited him to join, which led to a series of questions. Julien took out his translator to communicate with the man, spending an easy two hours interacting with him. Upon leaving, the man highly praised Julien's translator.

As Julien's trip to Mount Huang approached its end, he met two fishing enthusiasts while taking a walk by the Xin'an River. When he approached out of curiosity, the brothers enthusiastically taught him how to fish and demonstrated how to cast the line. Even though Julien held the fishing rod with both hands, making it inconvenient to use the translator, the brothers were still eager to explain the whole process in Chinese. When they learned Julien was returning to Beijing, they drove him to the high-speed train station 15 kilometers away and stuffed three bottles of mineral water into his backpack as a parting gift.

On the high-speed train back to Beijing, Julien reflected on his journey. In his view, China's trains were like a dream filled with novelties, with the past scenes feeling so unfamiliar and fresh to this traveler from Europe. Inside the carriage, he saw children focusing on their homework, office workers who could fall deep asleep even standing in the aisle, and passengers who didn't mind the external volume of their devices, their loud voices enough to echo throughout the train.

An international blogger experienced a funny moment on a train in China. Just as he settled in and was about to start filming, an enthusiastic Chinese uncle suddenly appeared in front of the camera, giving a "Yeah" gesture, then made a video call to his child, asking the child to take the opportunity to practice spoken English with the foreigner sitting beside him.

During the May Day holiday, a blogger named Julien also arrived in the picturesque city of Chengdu. When he returned, he went through a 20-hour journey in a hard sleeper. His presence attracted the attention of many passengers in the carriage, especially a group of curious uncles and aunties. They enthusiastically “fed” Julien, and in a short time, Julien received 500ml of beverages and a red apple as gifts. Another kind uncle shared his homemade delicacies with him and handed him a bottle of strong, clear liquid that made Julien wrinkle his brow in trapped confusion. The uncle answered Julien's inquiry about the contents of the liquid with a meaningful, drawn-out tone: aco-tel.

With the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and the widespread implementation of the visa-free policy, more and more foreign tourists like Julien and Elisabeth are choosing China as their new travel destination. According to data from the National Immigration Administration, in the first quarter of this year, China issued a cumulative total of 466,000 visas to foreigners, a year-on-year increase of 118.8%; and the number of visa-free entries by foreigners reached 1,988,000, a sharp increase of 266.1% compared to the same period last year. These figures show that the number of foreigners coming to China has more than tripled compared to the same period last year, with more than thirty percent coming for tourism and sightseeing.

Further data shows that during the May Day holiday of 2023, the number of entries and exits by foreigners reached 779,000, a surge of 98.7% compared to the same period last year. The National Immigration Administration also released an important notice on May 15, stating that from now on, foreign tourist groups arriving by cruise ship will enjoy visa-free entry convenience.

In several cities including Chengdu, local officials have already started actively preparing to welcome foreign tourists with higher quality services. Pablo noticed that some popular tourist spots like Kuanzhai Alley and People's Park have prepared cash and provided Visa and Mastercard card-swiping services, and have specifically prepared a detailed "Payment Guide for Foreign Nationals in China" for foreign customers.

In the past, foreign tourists, due to not having an ID card, could only queue up on site to buy tickets at scenic spots, which has always been a challenge. However, with gradual policy optimization, Leshan Giant Buddha scenic area had already opened an online ticketing system for passport users before this year's Spring Festival, effectively reducing the wait time for foreign tourists. And when Pablo took a group of Spanish tourists to visit the Leshan Giant Buddha and taste the local specialty Bo Bo Chicken, he was surprised to find that the restaurant could now provide English menus.

On the path of providing quality services, Pablo also continuously improves the quality of his own services. When he found that foreign tourists were not accustomed to hot water brewed Gaiwan tea, he flexibly adjusted and changed the inherent tea-drinking activity to provide a modern style cold drink service – Jasmine Milk Tea. This refreshing tea beverage is not only popular with foreign guests, but some have also asked Pablo to pack takeaway as a travel souvenir to take back to their home countries.

Even when most of the time is filled with surprises, foreign tourists in China inevitably experience clashes with the local culture. For instance, Julien extensively felt the cultural differences related to the sense of smell: in restaurants, many people smoke while dining, which he found unbearable; visiting public restrooms was like opening a box of unknown blind boxes, because you never know if the person before you had smoked in there; even on the train, the rolling "No Smoking" signs seemed ineffective in stopping the spread of smoke. This is completely different from the European countries Julien is accustomed to, where an indoor smoking ban has become a national consensus.

In his daily explorations in China, Julien also experienced a challenge that almost every young Chinese person has gone through—getting a haircut at a barbershop. At a barbershop inside a university campus in Beijing, when the hairdresser Tony removed the cover from Julien's head and tentatively asked "OK?" Julien's silence was filled with a thousand words. He shared the moment of surprise on TikTok, and it drew playful teases from netizens: "Your hair looks like it's been burned," and some even suggested he should ask for a refund.

Despite some mishaps, Julien told Phoenix Network that he thinks Chinese people are the friendliest among all nations he has encountered. Meanwhile, Elisabeth expressed her cosmopolitan view of traveling in China, believing that "humans are interconnected, no matter where we come from, we all seek the same things: security and happiness."

By the end of April, Elisabeth concluded her "commando journey." While waiting for her flight home at the Pudong Airport VIP lounge, she ordered a glass of champagne. Just as she was about to take a sip to relax, she noticed a sign on the table saying "Please drink moderately." This small reminder made Elisabeth smile wryly, wondering if anyone had ever drunk too much there. Although she had traveled to over 100 countries, this was the first time she had encountered such a gentle reminder like that of a good friend. She gently swirled her champagne glass, already looking forward to her next journey on Chinese soil.