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A |     At more than 1,500 meters above sea level, Tianmen Mountain in central China's Zhangjiajie offers summer temperatures of just 22 to 26 degrees Celsius, drawing a steady stream of visitors.
Among them are growing numbers of European travelers, like Italian Giancarlo Marino. Escaping the relentless summer heat in his hometown, he traveled to China with friends in search of cooler weather.
"Here you can feel the breeze, and while you're resting up on the mountain, you can even buy ice-cold drinks from the many vendors. It's thoughtful and relaxing," he said.
As extremely high temperatures grip many parts of the world this summer, China is emerging as an unexpected destination to avoid the soaring temperatures. With more convenient entry policies and a host of tourism-friendly measures, the country is drawing international visitors in surprising new ways.
NICHE ATTRACTIONS
Jizhou District in north China's Tianjin Municipality is usually known among Beijing residents as a weekend escape. Few would expect to encounter overseas tourists there, let alone visitors from Argentina.
Argentine traveler Michael visited Jizhou during his trip to China to enjoy the mountain scenery around the Huangyaguan section of the Great Wall.
For him, the "coolness" of Jizhou was not just about the pleasant temperature, but also about immersing himself in nature and experiencing rural life.
"The environment here is beautiful, and you can even see the Great Wall from the guesthouse," he said.
Local guesthouse owner Zhang Wei has noticed a growing number of foreign visitors seeking a deeper understanding of local life instead of simply checking off famous attractions.
"We've lately seen a clear increase in overseas guests. Many like to combine countryside experiences with natural scenery, allowing them to experience China in a more in-depth way," Zhang said.
Dutch tourist Noa is another traveler seeking out niche experiences. On a recent independent trip to Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu Province, Noa and friends made a point of visiting local produce markets and public parks, including matchmaking corners where parents gather to find partners for their children, to observe daily life up close.
"Many of the vegetables here are things I've never seen back home. It's really interesting," Noa said.
China's rapid economic and social development is also reshaping inbound tourism. Slovenian tourist Rainer Grega, visiting China for the first time, said he hopes to tour major Chinese technology companies.
"Many Chinese companies and brands are well-known overseas, so I'm really looking forward to visiting the headquarters of some of them. It would be fascinating to tour an electric-vehicle factory or see how those advanced robots are manufactured," he said.
According to a representative of a Suzhou-based international travel agency, foreign visitors are increasingly planning multi-city itineraries, while younger independent travelers, trips to smaller cities and rural areas, and longer stays have all become notable trends.
"Nowadays, many foreign visitors venture into city neighborhoods and rural villages to experience authentic Chinese life. From vibrant urban nightlife to rural revitalization, a vivid, multi-dimensional China is being increasingly shared with the world," said Wu Guoping, president of the Wuxi Tourism Association.
MORE OPEN STANCE
For many overseas visitors, China's increasingly convenient entry policies have provided an important guarantee for more flexible and in-depth travel.
China currently offers unilateral visa-free entry to nationals of 50 countries, including Slovenia and Italy.
"Thanks to the 30-day visa-free policy, you can come whenever you want -- just book a flight and go," Grega said. He added that transfers between airports and high-speed rail stations were seamless, making detailed travel planning largely unnecessary.
Marino echoed the view, saying the visa-free policy was a major reason for choosing China.
"It feels like the policy is becoming more and more foreigner-friendly. You can tell that China is opening its arms and genuinely welcoming more people to visit and learn about the country," he said.
Data from the National Immigration Administration (NIA) showed that China recorded 22.91 million inbound foreign visits in the first half of this year, up 20.4 percent year on year. Of those, 77.7 percent were made under visa-free entry facilitation policies.
China is also expanding the coverage of its 240-hour visa-free transit policy. According to an NIA announcement released on Aug. 20, citizens of Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam became eligible for the 240-hour visa-free transit policy and the 30-day visa-free entry policy for Hainan Province starting Aug. 20. The move increased the number of countries covered by the 240-hour visa-free transit policy to 57.
Vietnamese student Do Thi Huyen My, now in her second year at Hainan University, happily welcomed the new policy.
"I think the policy will definitely attract more Vietnamese tourists to China, especially to Hainan," she said.
"For me personally, it also means my family can visit me in Hainan more conveniently while enjoying a vacation here. By the time I graduate, my parents, relatives and friends will also be able to attend my graduation ceremony without going through complicated visa procedures," My said.
REFINED SERVICES MATTER
As inbound visitors become increasingly diverse and venture beyond traditional destinations, new opportunities have emerged for China's tourism industry, alongside higher expectations for service quality.
The city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, for instance, recently introduced a package of incentive measures to boost inbound tourism, offering rewards to travel agencies and online travel platforms that manage to organize overnight stays for foreign tourists and expatriates, or arrange one-day tours, with the annual reward up to 3 million yuan (about 442,000 U.S. dollars). Senior tour guides who manage to cultivate or recruit foreign-language guides are also eligible for incentives.
However, experts warned that feedback from some foreign visitors suggests that information access and language services remain weak links amid the boom of inbound tourism, which underscores the need to improve tourism services for international guests.
Wu Guoping suggested building a more comprehensive support system by developing multilingual digital platforms that seamlessly connect transportation, accommodation, dining, shopping and attractions, making travel planning and consumption more convenient.
To that end, Shanghai has recently launched a type of integrated smart tourism service kiosk that combines abundant online and offline resources.
Resembling a telephone booth, the facility provides access to 14,000 ticketing and shopping links, more than 20,000 dining venues and over 7,500 hotels and guesthouses. Powered by an AI travel assistant, it offers personalized recommendations, real-time interpretation and AI-generated travel journals. Its foreign bank card payment system supports 10 languages and more than 120 currencies.
Zhangjiajie is also improving services to match its surging international guests. From January to July this year, the city received 860,700 inbound visitors from 195 countries and regions, up 19.01 percent year on year. Tourism foreign exchange revenue reached 98.52 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 40.52 percent.
Despite the rapid growth, a previous survey in the Wulingyuan Scenic Area found that fewer than one-third of frontline staff could communicate proficiently in a foreign language.
The scenic area has since partnered with local universities to compile English-, Korean- and other foreign-language learning handbooks, while organizing evening classes for tourism workers.
Chen Heng, a 52-year-old publicity officer and one of the evening school participants, has even purchased language-learning software at his own expense and practices English pronunciation by reading aloud with a chopstick in his mouth.
"Zhangjiajie boasts world-class natural scenery. Our service quality has to keep pace as well," he said.
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