For years, Japan stood as the undisputed champion of Asian travel for Australians. But the reality is shifting fast, with China rapidly rising to take the crown. More Australian tourists are now choosing China as their preferred Asian destination. Flight searches for the country have surged 44% year-on-year. This jump officially pushes China past Japan in search volume. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirm the trend, showing a 16.5% spike in visits to China over the past year.
Australian Bureau of Statistics travel data confirm a 16.5% jump in Australian visits to China over the past year.
The numbers paint a clear picture of shifting loyalties. Travel search platform Skyscanner reported the 44% year-on-year growth in flight searches for China among Australian travelers on July 13, via Australian outlet 9News.
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Australian Bureau of Statistics travel data confirm a 16.5% jump in Australian visits to China over the past year.
Shaun, a seasoned Australian traveler, points first-time visitors straight to Shanghai.
The dramatic peaks of Zhangjiajie act as a powerful magnet for international tourists.
Shaun also pushes visitors toward Suzhou, the picturesque water town near Shanghai.
Shaun, a seasoned Australian traveler, points first-time visitors straight to Shanghai.
The momentum is equally visible at Wendy Wu Tours, an Australian travel agency specializing in Asian trips. Their bookings for China have more than doubled so far this year. This reflects a strong, growing appetite among Australians to explore the country. Australian Bureau of Statistics travel data mirror this enthusiasm, confirming the 16.5% climb in visits over the past 12 months.
China is hardly a hidden gem on the global stage. Yet, for Australian travelers, it historically lagged behind heavyweights like Japan and Bali on the ultimate wish list. That old mindset is finally cracking.
Economics and logistics are driving the change. Australians increasingly recognize China as a budget-friendly destination with convenient direct flights. The real game-changer was China's 2024 visa-exemption policy. This move allows short-term visitors to stay up to 15 days without the hassle of a prior visa. Lowering the barrier to entry directly fueled the spike in visitor numbers. Beyond convenience, China delivers deep cultural immersion and a massive portfolio of refreshing, largely undiscovered attractions.
Perception is catching up with reality. Simon Bell, general manager of Wendy Wu Tours, points to a shift in how travelers view China's ongoing modernization. He notes that the country's rising global profile acts as a magnet for Australian curiosity. People simply want to experience China by themselves.
The appeal goes well beyond checking off a bucket list. Repeat visitors are surging alongside first-timers. These returning travelers are eager to push past the well-worn tourist routes. Moving away from standard package tours, China attracts a new breed of visitor hungry to dive deep into local culture.
The dramatic peaks of Zhangjiajie act as a powerful magnet for international tourists.
Diversity is China's ultimate trump card. The options stretch from Beijing's Great Wall and Xi'an's Terracotta Warriors to the hyper-modern skyline of Shanghai. Nature lovers can pivot from the dramatic peaks of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, famous as an Avatar filming location, to the tropical beaches of Hainan. Add in a vibrant street food culture spanning the nation, and China delivers an experience entirely distinct from Japan or Southeast Asia.
Consider Shaun, a Melbourne-based traveler who knows the terrain better than most. He has crisscrossed China more than 50 times for work over the past two decades. He makes a habit of extending his business trips to uncover new corners of the country. Shaun also emphasizes that China's massive scale and cultural variety guarantee a fresh experience on every single visit.
Shaun also pushes visitors toward Suzhou, the picturesque water town near Shanghai.
For rookies, Shanghai is his undisputed top pick. He praises the city for offering something for everyone. His highlights range from the historic architecture along the Bund to world-class dining and the massive shopping district on Nanjing Road. He also highly recommends Suzhou, often dubbed the "Venice of the East." Located just a 30-minute high-speed train ride from Shanghai, Suzhou captivates visitors with its famous gardens and network of canals.
The reality is that language can still present a hurdle. Shaun admits the communication gap can be tricky at times. Yet, he insists the consistent warmth and genuine friendliness of the locals easily outweigh the challenges.
Mao Paishou
** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **
Is America's AI lead already history? On August 2, CNBC ran an opinion piece with a blunt message: The US lead over China in AI is all but gone. We need a change in national strategy.
Facing a barrage of breakthroughs from Chinese AI companies, the article presses a harder question. The real issue isn't whether China can compete at the frontier. It’s whether Washington can adapt fast enough to a rapidly maturing Chinese innovation machine.
The author Dewardric McNeal is a former US Defense Department official from the Obama years, where he handled East Asia and China security. Now he's managing director and senior analyst at Longview Global, a consulting firm.
Ex-Pentagon official: US AI dominance is vanishing. We must learn from China's strategy.
Look at the buzz around DeepSeek, Moonshot AI's Kimi K3, Alibaba's Qwen models, Tencent's Hunyuan, Zhipu AI, and MiniMax. It's solid proof that China has built an AI ecosystem that churns out world-class capabilities from not one, but many companies.
The Ecosystem vs. the One-Off Mindset
McNeal argues that China's AI ecosystem isn't just leading on model benchmarks. It's pulling ahead on cost, deployment, customization, financing, standards, developer adoption, and global reach. The US, meanwhile, is stuck in reactive mode. It's scrambling to respond to one breakthrough after another, rather than shaping the playing field.
China's AI breakthroughs aren't flukes. They stem from a deliberate, world-class innovation ecosystem.
That's a bigger deal than any benchmark score or model launch. Policymakers, tech CEOs, investors, and US allies should be paying attention. The competition has moved beyond individual companies. It's now a clash of entire innovation ecosystems.
The biggest misjudgment? Washington, according to the article, still views China's AI advances through the lens of individual companies and single technologies. But China is building something far more formidable: a complete industrial ecosystem.
“Whether those advances emerge through original innovation, engineering optimization, open-weight collaboration, or from distillation of US models is increasingly beside the point. The larger strategic reality is that they are occurring across an ecosystem, while the US continues to evaluate them one company at a time and often responds as though each breakthrough were an isolated event rather than evidence of a broader structural transformation.”
In McNeal’s view, projects like DeepSeek, Kimi, and Tongyi Qianwen are not isolated cases. They are pieces of a coordinated whole.
Over the past few years, the US has consistently underestimated China's long-term tech investments and its ability to turn domestic industrial strategy into global competitive advantage. From rare earths to EVs, robotics, semiconductors, and now AI, the pattern is the same.
China's AI breakthroughs aren't flukes. They stem from a deliberate, world-class innovation ecosystem.
McNeal noted: “the analytical mistake has remained remarkably consistent.” The US tends to assess China's progress product by product, dismissing each advance as “exceptional” or “unsustainable”. China, on the other hand, has pursued a patient, meticulous strategy. It's cultivating conditions for the entire ecosystem to innovate and deploy in sync.
McNeal points out that China's plan to become a tech superpower was set long before Biden's tech restrictions came into play. DeepSeek's R1 release in January 2025 was a wake-up call. It forced many to finally admit what China has been signaling for over a decade through industrial policies, five-year plans, and national science and technology strategies.
China's Full-Stack Strategy Goes Global
China’s ecosystem strategy aims to shape the competitive environment for technology R&D, financing, standardization, deployment, and ultimately promotion and application.
Together, a giant net is woven: industrial policy, finance, innovation, global standards, university curricula, state-supported developer ecosystems, diplomacy, and commercial expansion, bonded into a single coherent national strategy. The objective: lock in long-term technological leadership.
It doesn't compete company by company or technology by technology. It shapes not just the technology itself, but the environment and conditions for technological success.
AI is the strategy's clearest expression today. But it's hardly the only one.
The same logic runs through China's push in semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, robotics, telecom, renewable energy, critical minerals, digital infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing. AI is no exception to China's industrial strategy, but the most refined version of it.
McNeal argues China is now taking this AI playbook global. It's pushing its technology outward through open-source development, international cooperation, and targeted promotion to developing countries. The goal: expand the reach of its tech ecosystem.
The old US playbook won't work here. Washington once squeezed Chinese telecom firms. But that model is much harder to replicate in AI. Why? Because AI adoption hinges on the autonomous choices of global developers, enterprises, and governments.
The article cites US Commerce Secretary Lutnick's earlier comments on chip export restrictions. He indicated that Washington wants to make global users unable to leave the American tech ecosystem. But the author pushes back, questioning whether the US technology ecosystem is really the best choice right now.
Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 is the latest Chinese model turning heads in the US tech world.
The Bottom-Up Battle Washington Can't Win
Forget the Huawei playbook. McNeal draws a sharp contrast. Steering countries away from Chinese AI, he argues, is a far tougher challenge than Washington's earlier crackdown on Huawei and ZTE.
Governments can regulate telecom infrastructure. But they can't stop millions of developers from weaving AI models, software libraries, and tools into commercial applications worldwide.
The reason? Technology adoption today is a bottom-up wave, not a top-down decree.
The article lands on a blunt conclusion. For the US, the real question isn't just whether American tech firms can keep building the world's most powerful AI models. It's whether Washington can craft a coherent national strategy.
Because once the fight shifts to ecosystems, success hinges on more than which model tops the leaderboard. It depends on which ecosystem global developers, researchers, entrepreneurs, universities, companies, governments, and investors choose to trust, adopt, and rely on.
