West China's two historical cities of Xi'an and Chengdu have emerged as popular destinations for international travelers during the ongoing summer travel rush, with both cities seeing surges in cross-border travels.
This year's summer travel rush will last for 62 days from July 1 to Aug. 31.
According to the frontier inspection station of Chengdu, capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province, from July 1 to 9, the station inspected over 160,000 passenger entries and exits and more than 1,200 flights, up 17.8 percent and 15.8 percent respectively compared to the same period last year. The number of foreign arrivals at Chengdu's airports reached over 13,000, marking a 61.4 percent year-on-year increase.
To attract more international tourists, Sichuan has launched a summer campaign themed "Leisure in Sichuan," rolling out traveler-friendly policies for foreign visitors.
While introducing an "Europe Cultural Season" activity which features 11 events including film festivals and rock concerts, Chengdu authorities have also established a joint task force to streamline inbound tourism services, optimized frontier inspection procedure, added foreign currency exchange points, and upgraded ATMs with multilingual interfaces.
Xi'an, the capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, is also experiencing a peak in inbound tourism.
From July 1 to 9, Xi'an's ports of entry registered over 56,000 passenger entries and exits, including 26,000 entries, marking a year-on-year rise of 46 percent and 44 percent respectively.
Data show that most foreign arrivals in Xi'an were from South Korea, Malaysia, and Russia, with a notable increase in the number of tourists from Central Asia.
Global tourists favor west China's Chengdu, Xi'an in summer travel rush
