China's cruise terminals are seeing a surge in foreign visitors this National Day holiday, reflecting how the country's expanded visa-free policy and better transport links are reshaping inbound travel.
The National Day holiday, usually spanning seven days from Oct 1 and called the "Golden Week", is extended to an eight-day holiday this year as it is celebrated together with the Mid-Autumn Festival.
In the northeastern and eastern parts of China, weekend ferry trips between South Korea and Chinese coastal cities such as Qingdao, Dalian and Yantai have taken off. By late September, Shandong ports had recorded more than 328,000 arrivals from South Korea, accounting for 83 percent of all visa-free foreign visitors. And Liaoning ports reported ferry passenger volumes nearly tripling from a year earlier.
"During this year's National Day holiday, we are seeing a group of nearly 400 South Korean tourists arriving on visa-free entry. With the continued benefits of the visa-free policy, we are working with cultural tourism departments and port enterprises to tap the advantages of Yantai's location and mature ferry routes, jointly developing special tourism products to boost local tourism industries," said Hu Chen, a customs officer at Yantai immigration inspection station.
Tianjin, northern China' largest cruise hub, is also benefiting from the boom. Nearly 6,000 passengers passed through its cruise port on Sept 27 alone, and over the past year almost 330,000 cruise travelers from more than 80 countries and regions have started their leisure trips in China from here.
"Very good, (people have good) hospitality. I can't complain. Everything comes through quite quickly," said a Finnish visitor.
Most visitors combine cruises with hour-long high-speed rail trips to Beijing, a pattern that has boosted regional spending, with digital payments by inbound tourists during the May holiday up 180 percent year on year.
During the Golden Week, 12 vessels carrying 44,000 passengers are expected at the ports in Shanghai. Many are traveling across areas such as Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou.
"I come here this year three times because I'd like to learn and better my Chinese," a German tourist said.
"We are planning to stay in Shanghai for three nights after our cruise. We are going to go to Disney. And we are going to check out all the beautiful sites in Shanghai," said a traveler from Australia.
"We've noticed many foreign tourists arriving by cruise and then traveling and shopping around the Yangtze River Delta region, such as Shanghai and Zhejiang. To facilitate their trips, we exempt cruise passengers from fingerprint collection when entering China," said You Yingying, a customs officer at Shanghai immigration inspection station. Other ports are seeing similar momentum. In Xiamen, east China's Fujian Province, more than 3,400 passengers arrived on Sept 27, and another 2,000 are expected on Oct 4. More than 40 percent of inbound cruise tourists there have continued their journeys onward through ports in other provinces.
"This is my first time in Xiamen. I've heard it's beautiful and the food is delicious, so I want to experience it for myself. Xiamen is a city I've always dreamed of," a Spanish visitor said.
"During the Golden Week, inbound hotel searches have increased by 150 percent compared with last year. Popular source markets include Asian countries like South Korea, Japan, and Thailand, as well as the UK and other European and American countries. Ten cities, such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Chengdu, are the major destinations for inbound tourists," said Liu Ting, public affairs manager of the booking platform Trip.com.
Inbound cruise tourism surges in China during Golden Week
