Foreign tourists flock to China for cultural experiences, boosted by easier visas and improved travel services.

Immersion cultural experiences, like learning traditional crafts, sampling traditional cuisine, and engaging in themed activities like hanfu photography, are becoming more and more popular among foreign visitors to China. Expanded visa-free access—more than 7 million entries in Q3 2025, a 48.3% increase—as well as enhanced payment methods, multilingual services, and AI-powered travel tools are the main drivers of this change. Boutique tours like hutong cycling and the Panda Express train are offered by cities, and reservations for destinations like Harbin, Xi'an, and Yunnan are increasing. According to experts, increasing inbound tourism revenue to 1%–2% of GDP could result in economic value of 1-2 trillion yuan.