Growing variety of worldwide travellers are planning journeys to China to expertise vibrant sights and sounds
BEIJING:
Because the Chinese language New 12 months, or the Spring Competition, attracts close to, a rising variety of worldwide travellers are planning their journeys round this conventional celebration to immerse themselves in China’s vibrant tradition and festive spirit.For Finn, a younger Dutch pupil who wore a horse-head hat and took photographs beneath a theme park’s golden wishing tree, his go to to Beijing shortly earlier than the Spring Competition was nice enjoyable.”
The joyous environment and various interactive actions right here make me totally immersed and entertained,” he mentioned. “I will positively share this with my buddies within the Netherlands, and I might like to deliver them right here once more to expertise a unique Chinese language New 12 months.”
Finn’s horse-head hat is well-liked amongst younger vacationers within the park as a result of 2026 is the 12 months of the Horse in accordance with the Chinese language zodiac. And the upcoming Spring Competition, which falls on Feb. 17, marks the primary day of this Chinese language New 12 months.Identical to Finn, many worldwide vacationers are taking China as their vacation spot lately. Knowledge from main journey platforms exhibits a considerable rise in inbound tourism for the 2026 Spring Competition.
Over the last two weeks of January, worldwide flight bookings to China jumped greater than 400 % in comparison with the identical interval final yr, led by vacationers from Thailand, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Singapore.Notably, China has seen a major ninefold improve within the variety of reservations made by vacationers from Argentina throughout this yr’s nine-day Spring Competition vacation, whereas bookings from European international locations, together with the Netherlands, Spain and Britain, greater than doubled.”
Round one third of our room bookings in the course of the coming vacation have been made by overseas visitors,” mentioned a workers member of a lodge in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan Province. He added that many of those foreigners opted for prolonged stays to completely embrace the Chinese language competition, which led to nearly full occupancy.”Celebrating the Spring Competition in China is changing into a brand new world development,” an analyst of the tourism business mentioned. “The individuality and immersive expertise of Spring Competition traditions are rising as core points of interest for abroad guests, injecting sustained momentum into the event of inbound tourism.”
The tourism increase isn’t restricted to main cities; China’s various landscapes and tradition have given rise to many sudden locations.
Lately, many Russian vacationers have flowed into Hunchun, a small metropolis of 200,000 folks in northeastern China’s Jilin Province that shares a border with Russia, as various native actions have begun for the Chinese language New 12 months celebrations.Varvara is among the many guests. Throughout her journey, she plans to go to the New 12 months’s market, get pleasure from conventional competition meals like dumplings, and participate in actions akin to paper-cutting and hanging couplets.”I am wanting ahead to all these actions. Studying about Chinese language tradition throughout China’s most necessary competition is a very distinctive expertise,” she mentioned.
Daria, one other vacationer from Russia, was enthusiastic about having a standard Hanfu photoshoot throughout her Spring Competition go to to an area historical city. She mentioned she believes that carrying the normal apparel would supply a deeper and extra genuine immersion into the competition.For the reason that starting of 2026, the Hunchun port between China and Russia has processed about 58,000 inbound and outbound passengers, together with 44,000 overseas nationals, marking a year-on-year improve of 74.8 %, in accordance with native authorities.
Based on business insiders, the journey increase can be attributed to the relaxed visa and journey facilitation insurance policies. Knowledge from the Nationwide Immigration Administration exhibits that in 2025, China expanded its unilateral visa-free entry to residents of 48 international locations, whereas the variety of international locations providing reciprocal visa exemptions rose to 29. XINHUA
