China's diverse summer offerings attract record numbers of int'l travelers

Chinese cities are rolling out diverse summer offerings that are drawing both domestic tourists and a growing wave of international travelers, boosted by visa-free policies and streamlined digital payment services for convenience.

In east China's Jiangsu Province, the city of Liyang has turned its bamboo forests and lake resources into summer playgrounds, offering visitors stream trails and waterside escapes that embody this broader tourism boom.

The Tianmu Lake Nanshan Bamboo Sea scenic area features a 500-meter stream trail winding through the valley, with a misting system cooling the air and creating a dreamlike atmosphere.

"It's much cooler here than in the surrounding areas, a great place to escape the heat," said a visitor.

Nearby, the water park at the Tianmu Lake scenic area offers more than ten attractions, including wave pools and water slides, with daytime water-splashing parties giving way to electronic music and parades at night.

"I saw it online, and there are mountains, water, and bamboo forests here. It's just so poetic and picturesque," said a visitor.

The scenic landscape has also caught the attention of foreign visitors. Jean, a French tourist, made the bamboo forest a stop during his family's tour of China.

"We are in a round trip in China and it's just a great surprise because this area is amazing. So it's like kind of paradise, it's really quite nice place. It's beautiful. We are enjoying the area," he said.

The two scenic areas have averaged close to 10,000 visitor trips per day since early summer, according to local tourism authorities.

Meanwhile, in Shanghai, the Wukang Road historic district, lined with boutique coffee shops, international pop-up stores and local heritage-inspired brands, has become a popular stop for overseas visitors.

"And also I think this is, from the research that we did, this has like the most kind of shops along kind of one area that appealed the most, so that's why we came over here. I've seen a few, I don't remember their names, but I like the silks and those are really pretty," said a tourist from New Zealand.

The surge in foreign visitors comes as China expands its visa-free policy, promotes payment facilitation and offers instant duty-free refunds at departure. These measures are helping convert inbound traffic into consumption growth.

From film-themed tours to intangible cultural heritage experiences and AI-guided trips, a diverse range of promotional activities has made China a top-of-mind destination for travelers worldwide.

Tourism platform data showed that among the top 20 source countries and regions for inbound travel this summer, European countries accounted for 30 percent, with orders rising 275 percent year on year and ticket purchases for scenic spots surging more than 20-fold.

China's diverse summer offerings attract record numbers of int'l travelers

Japan's ongoing push to revise its pacifist constitution and expand military buildup escalate regional tension, warned Japanese lawyer Kyoko Oe, who urged adherence to pacifism and vigilance against the government's dangerous moves.

Since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office last October, the Japanese government has renewed its push to revise the country's pacifist constitution and accelerated a series of military expansion measures, including increasing defense spending, deploying long-range missiles, and easing restrictions on arms exports.

Speaking on the dangerous policy shifts, Oe criticized the Takaichi administration for bypassing public will.

"We believe that when Japanese citizens are not demanding constitutional reform, pushing it forward through a parliamentary majority clearly violates the principle of popular sovereignty and the obligation to respect the constitution. Moreover, the content of the revision itself is extremely dangerous. [The government] is attempting to change pacifist principles of the Japanese constitution -- the most fundamental part -- and abandon basic concepts, including the renunciation of war and not maintaining military forces," said Oe.

The Japanese government has aggressively accelerated war readiness even under the current constitution, said Oe, adding that amending it will grant the Self-Defense Forces even greater freedom of action at the constitutional level.

"If the constitution is amended, the Self-Defense Forces will gain greater freedom of action at the constitutional level than they have now, and legal interpretations will develop in that direction. Even while the current constitution remains effective, the Japanese government has already forcibly advanced war preparations. For example, manufacturing long-range missiles, which were previously considered unacceptable to possess, and deploying them domestically; conducting joint war games and military exercises with the United States; and massively manufacturing and exporting weapons overseas," said Oe.

The lawyer also criticized Takaichi's provocative remarks on China, saying they have sharply strained bilateral ties and undermined peace and stability in the region.

"We believe that due to Takaichi's remarks made last November, China-Japan relations have become very tense and are deteriorating. Legal experts believe that Takaichi's remarks contain multiple obvious errors. Takaichi should frankly retract the relevant remarks and apologize. Only by building mutual trust with neighboring countries can we maintain our peace, and the peace of East Asia and even the peace of Asia. We believe that what the Takaichi administration is doing runs completely counter to what the Japanese people truly wish to achieve," Oe said.

Japan's constitution revision, military buildup fuel regional tensions: lawyer