Cities in China see more global tourists as visa-free policy expands

Inbound tourism have boomed after China extended its visa-free policy to nine more countries, including Norway, Finland, Denmark, and South Korea.

The pilot visa-free policy, effective from Nov 8 to December 31 next year, marks the fifth round of visa-free policy expansion.

On November 8, the first group of tourists under the new policy arrived at the airport in Wuhan City of central China's Hubei Province. Within around two minutes, all 184 visitors from South Korea had cleared customs.

"With the visa-free policy in place, I can bring my parents and my wife here together, which is convenient," said Lee Sang-Su from South Korea.

To better serve the influx, Wuhan customs has added more language service volunteers and streamlined the border inspection.

"Wuhan Immigration Inspection Station assigned police forces who are fluent in Korean to guide visitors in the entry card filling area, and also perfected the visa-free entry inspection process. We are now able to carry out inspections as soon as visitors arrive to enable faster entry," said Yan Wei, a staff of the Wuhan Immigration Inspection Station.

Apart from visa-free policy expansion, China has also rolled out a series of policies to facilitate foreign tourists including better payment methods, diverse tourism products and so on.

In Zhangjiajie City of central China's Hunan Province, foreign tourists can now buy tickets directly with their passports to explore the scenery of Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon and its breathtaking 300-meter-high glass bridge.

"I always love China, and the culture, and the language, and always want to be here, but it's so far away. So we finally got here, the scenery, so stunning. It's just so amazing. It's such a big and open country. I'm just amazed by everything here," said Dariana, a German tourist. Hangzhou City of east China's Zhejiang Province and Shenzhen City of south China's Guangdong Province are also seeing a growing number of foreign visitors coming in for business, sightseeing or family reunion. According to statistics, Hangzhou customs has welcomed over 110,000 inbound arrivals visa-free so far this year, up 3 times year on year. And for Shenzhen, the number has exceeded 600,000, a seven-time increase year on year.

"Shenzhen Immigration Inspection General Station has inspected a total of 4.55 million inbound and outbound foreigners this year, rising by 98 percent year on year. The visa-free travel constituted 28 percent of the total, compared to 7 percent last year. The visa-free policy is making immediate effects," said Du Hai, a staff of the Shenzhen Immigration Inspection General Station.

Cities in China see more global tourists as visa-free policy expands

International relations experts from Japan and some other countries warned against the rise of right-wing militarism tendencies in the Japanese government reflected in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's recent Taiwan-related remarks.

Critics say such blatant disregard of history and basic principles of international relations could have very dangerous impacts, damaging mutual trust Asian countries have worked hard to build and threating peace and stability in the region.

"Sanae Takaichi say that a Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency. This statement is very dangerous. It breaks basic principles of international law and international relations. It also interferes in China's internal affairs and try to pull Japan into a regional conflict. This work shows that some Japanese politicians are moving forward right-wing ideas and risky military thinking," said Lim Wen Jye, a senior researcher at Malaysia's Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research.

"To my view, Takaichi is simply a puppet for these forces that are being activated - the old military forces, the right-wing forces in Japan," said Stephen Brawer, an international relations expert and chairman of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden.

In Japan, scholars have stressed the importance of stable bilateral relations with China and urged the prime minister to withdraw erroneous remarks.

"From a diplomatic perspective, existing agreements between Japan and China were overturned. When Sino-Japanese relations were normalized, China's approach to Japan was to make a distinction between Japanese militarists and ordinary citizens, and not to seek reparations. However, the Japanese government must bear its due responsibility for the past," said political economist Kazuhide Uekusa.

Scholars warn against right-wing politics reflected in Japanese PM's remarks